| OCR Text |
Show 142 OF 'fHE REN'r OF LAND. [ CH. Ill. it produces the n1aterials for clothing, lodging, and firing.* It is therefore strictly true, that land produces the necessaries of life-produces the 111eans by \vhich, and by 'tvhich alone, an increase of people may be brought into being and supported. In this respect it is fundan1entally different fron1 every other kind of machine knovvn to rnan ; and it is natural to suppose that the use of it should be attended with some peculiar effects. If an active and industrious fatnily \vere possessed of a certain portion of land, \V hich they could cultivate so as to n1ake it yield food, and the n1aterials of clothing, lodgi.ng, and firing, not only for then1selves but for five other fatnilies, it follows, frotn the principle of population, that, if they properly distributed their surplus produce, they would soon be able to comn1and the labour of five other families, and tbe value of their landed produce would soon be \vorth five times as n1uch as the value of the labour which had been ernployed in raising it. But if, insteaq of a portion of land * It is however certain that, if either these materials be wanting, or the skill and capital necessary to work them up be prevented from forming, owing to the insecurity of property or any other cause, the ·cultivators will soon slacken in their exertions, and the motives to accumulate and to increase their produce will greatly diminish. But in this case there will be a very slack demand for labour: and, whatever may be the nominal cheapness ' of provisions, the labourer will not really be able to command such .a portio.n of the necessaries of life ' includin()b' ' of course , clothmg, lodgmg, &c. as will occasion a.p increase of population. SEC. I.] . QF THE RENT OF LAND. 143 '" hich woulq yield all the necessaries of life, they possessed only, in addition to the tneans of their o\vn support, a .tnachine ¥rhieh \Vould produce hats or coats for fifty people besi,des then1selves, no efforts which they could n1ake ~rould enable them to ensure a clen1and for these hats or coats, and give then1 in return a con1n1and over a· quantity of labour considerably greater than their fabrication had cost. For a long tin1e, and by possibili'ty for ever, the tnachine n1ight be of no n1ore value than that \vhich \Vould. result fron1 its tnaking hats or coats for the fan1ily. Its further po,vers 1night .be absolutely thro\,rn a\\ray frotn the want of denland; aud even 'v hen, fro1n external causes totally independent of any efforts of their O\Vn, a population had risen to detnand the fifty hats, the value of then1 in the ~omn1and of labour and other con1n1odities. n1igbt pennanently exceed but very little the value of the labour employed in 1naking tben1. After the new· cotton n1achinery had been introduced into this country, a hundred yards of tnuslin of a certain quality would not probably con1n1and n1ore labour than t\venty-five· yards would before; because the supply had increased faster than the den1and, and there vvas no longer a denJand for the \Vhole quantity produced at the san1e price. But after great in1prove1nents in agriculture have been adopted upon a Jimited tract of land, a quarter of \:Vheat will in a short _tin1e command just as n1uch labo~r as before; because the increased produce, occas1oned by the i1nprovetnents in cultiva- |
