OCR Text |
Show 138 OF THE RENa' OF LAND. [ CH. III. to the landlord who receives it, is surely no advantao ·e to the consun1er \vho pays it. Were the pro-b . 1 duce of agriculture to be sold for a lo\tver price, t 1e san1e neat surplus would not ren1ain, after defraying the expenses of cultivation; but agriculture ,vould be still equally productive to the general stock ; and the only difference \vould be, that, as the landlord ':vas formerly enriched by the high price, at the expense of the community, the cotnnlunity 'vill now profit by the lo\v price, at the expense of the landlord. The high price in ,vbich the . rent or neat surplus originates, while it enriches the landlord who has the produce of agriculture to sell, diminishes, in the san1e proportion, the "vealth of those who are its purchasers; and on this account it is quite inaccurate to consider the landlord's rent as a clear addition to the national wealth." In other parts of this "vork he uses the satne, or even stronger language, anJ in a note on the subject of taxes, he .speaks of the high price of the produce of land as advantageous to those VI ho receive it, but proportionably injurious to those vvho pay it. " In this vie,v,'' he adds, " it can forn1 no general addition to the stock of the conlmunity, as the neat surplus in question is nothing . n1ore than a revenue transferred frorn one class to auother, and, from the n1ere circun1stance of its thus changing hands, it is clear that no fund can arise dut of \iVhich to pay taxes. r-fhe revenue vvhich pays for the produce of land exists already in the hands of those who purchase that produce ; SEC. 1.] OF THE RENT O:F LAND. 139 and, if the price of subsistence were lower, it would still ren1ain in their hands, \Vhere it would be just as available for taxation, as vvhen by a higher price it is transferred to the landed pro-prietor."* / That there are son1e circun1stances connected with rent, \vhich have a strong affinity to a natural tnonopoly, will be readily allowed. The extent of the earth itself is limited, and cannot be enlarged by hun1an den1and. The inequality of .. soils occasions, even at an early period of society, a comparati':e scarcity of the best lands; and this scarcity is undoubtedly one of the causes of rent properly so called. On this account, perhaps the tern1 partial monopoly n1ay be fairly applicable to it. But the scarcity of land, thus in1plied, is by no means alone sufficient to produce the effects observed. And a more accurate investigation of the subject will she\\r us ho\iv different the high price of ra'v produce is, both in its nature and orio·in and the la,vs by which it is governed, from ~h~ high price of a comrnon monopoly. The causes of the excess of the price of raw produce above the costs of production, may be stated to be three. . ~irst.' and n1ainly, That quality of the earth, by which It can be n1ade to yield a greater portion of the necessaries of life than is required for the maintenance of the persons en1ployed on the Janel. 2dly, That quality peculiar to the necessaries of life of being able, when properly distributed, to * Vol.III.p.212. |