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Show 304 OF 'tHE PROFITS OF CAPiTAL. [cu. V. great er con1 mand n.ot only of n1anufactu .r es and · of the products of foreign COlTilllCl'Ce (a s. IS gene-rally the case in the present. state of th 1 ~gs) l~u t o f corn an d all Other necessanes,. so as to place h.t m in a condition continually and _nl all re~pccts un- . · o· as lono- as capital continued to Increase. pl OV1110 , b · · b' h In short, of the three great port1ons Into w 1c the mass of produce is divid ed, rent, profits, and ,vages, the two first \vould be lo\¥, bccausse both the supply 0 f , land and the supply of capital wo~ l d be abundant compared 'vith the den1and; 'v l11le the "vages of labour \voulcl be very high , beca u s~ the supply of , labourers would be comparatively scanty; and thus the value of each \Vo uld be regu latccl by the great principle of den1aud and supply. . If: instead of supposing the popul at1on to be checked by sotne pecu I iar influen ce, ' ve n1ak~ the n1ore t)atural supposition of a litn ited terntory,. with all the land of nearly equal qual ity, and ~f such great fertility as to acln1it of very li ttle capttal being laid out upori it, the effects upo_n the profits of capital would be just the san1c as. In the last in-stance, though they \Voulcl be very ddferent on rents and wages. After all the land had been cultivated, and 110 tnore capital could be en1 ployed on it, there cannot be a doubt that rents \rould he extren1ely high and profits and \\' age~ ve1.'Y , lo\V. The con1 petition of increasing cap1:tal 111 tnanufactures and con1n1erce vvould reduce the rate of profits, while the principle of population 'vould continue to augn1ent the nun1ber of the S:F:C. rr.J OF THE PROFIT& OF CAPITAL. 305 labouring classes, till their corn wages were so lo\v as to check their furthel· increase. It is probable that, o~i ng to the facility o.f production on the land and the great proportion of persons employed in n1anufacturcs and conunerce, the ex ports \Vould be great and the value of n1oney very low. rfhe money price of corn and 1noney 'vages 'votlld perhaps be as high as when their cost in labour had been double or treble; rents would rise to an extraordinary pitch without any assistance fron1 poor lands, and the gradations of soil; and profits n1ight fall to the point only just sufficient to keep up the actual capital vvithout any additional1a~our being necessary to procure the food of the labotuer. The effects w htch \Vould obviously result fron1 the t\v~o suppositions just n1ade, clearly she\t\r that the increasing quantity of labour required for the successi,Te cultivation of poorer land is not theoretically neeessary to a fall of profits fron1 the highest rate to the lo"rest. The former of these t\vo suppositions further she\vs the extraordinary power possessed by the labouring classes of society, if they chose to exercise it. The con1parative check to population, w·hich \Vas considered as occasioned by son1e· n1iraculous influence, n1ight in reality be effected by ihe prudence of the poor; and it would unq uestionablv be follo\ved by the result described. It ~ ~ 1nay naturally appear hard to the labouring classes that, of the vast tnass of productions obtained from the land, the capital~ and the labour of the X |
