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Show 294 OJ:!' THE PROFITS OF CAPITAL. [ CH. V. composed of accun1ulations ,vhich have previously cost in their production· a certain quantity of wao·es, profit and rent, exclusive of the rent which, in fhe case of landed products, is l?aid directly. The rate of profits is the proportion \vhich the difference betwe·en the value of the advances and the value of the comn1odity produced bears to the value of the advances, and it varies with the variations of thevalueofthe advances compared vvith the value of the product. When the value of the advances is great co1npared with the value of the product, the ren1ainder being sn1all, the rate of profits will be lo'vv. When the value of the advances is inconsiderable the remainder being great, the rate of profits will be high. The varying rate of profits, therefore, obviously depends upon the causes which alter the proportion between the value of the advances and the value of the produce; and this proportion may be altered either by circumstances which affect the value of the advances, or the value of the product. Of the advances necessary to production, the n1eans of supporting labour are generally the greatest and most important. These means, therefore, will have the greatest influence on the value_ of the advances. The two main causes \vhich influence the means of supporting labour, are . 1st. The difficulty or facllity of production on t}l.e land, by which a greater or less proportion of the :alue of the \vhole produce i~ capable of supporting the labourers ernployed. SEC. 1.] 'l {)F T·HE PROFITS OF CAPITAL. 295 And 2dly, The varying relation of the quantity of capital to the quantity of labour employed by it, by which n1ore or less of the necessaries of life may go to each individual labourer. Each of these causes is alone suf-ficient to occasion all the variations of which profits are susceptible. If one of them only acted, its operation would be simple. It is the con1 bination of the two, and of others in addition to them, so1netimes acting in conjunction and sometimes in opposition, which occasions in the progress of society those varied phenomena which it is not al\vays easy to explain. If the first cause operated singly, and the wages of the individual labourer were al\vays the san1e, then supposing that the skill in agriculture were to remain unchanged, and that there \Vere no 1neans of obtaining corn from foreign countries, he rate of profits n1ust regularly and \t\rithout any interruption fall, as the society advanced, and as it became necessary to resort to inferior machines which required n1ore labour to put in action. It \Vould signify little, in this case, whether the last land taken into cultivation for food had yielded a rent in its uncultivated state. It is certain that the landlord would not allow it to be cultivated, unless he could, at the least, obtain the same rent for it as before. This must be considered as an absolute condition on the worst lands taken into cultivation in an in1proved country. After this paytnent ,vas n1ade, the remainder _of u4 |
