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Show 146 OF THE RENT OF LAND. (CH.III~ th~ uantity of produce being only half of ~hat ,vas qb t• . btal·ned by the same labour and capital, e ore o 0 E 1 d it rna T be doubted whether any lai:d 111 ng an coull be kept in tillage. All effective demand _for corn of home· growth would be at an end; and If a supp 1y cou1 d not be . obtained from . ab.r oad, the 0 h d t population of the country must be dimlnis e o perhaps one-fifth of its former amount. 0 The produce of certain viney~rds . 111 Fr~nce, which, from the peculiarity of their so.Il and sttu~tion, exclusively yield vvine of a certain fl~vour, Is ld Of course at a price very fay ~xceeding the so ' ' . . th cost of production. A 1~~ this IS owin~ to e O'reatness of the cotnpetition for such WI~e, combared with the scantiness of its supply, wh1ch conpfi nes the use of it to so small a number of. hp ersons 0 that they are able, and, rat!1er th~n go ':It out It, ·11· · to o·1·,re an excessively h1gh price. But, Wl 1ng b . if the fertility of these lands were Increased s.o as very considerably to increase the ~ro~~ce, this roduce n1ight so fall in value as to dim1111sh most ~ssentially the excess of its price above ~he cos~ of production. While, on the other hand, tf the vineyards were to become less productive, this excess might increase to almost any extent.* * Mr. Ricardo says, (p. 505.) in answer to this passage, that, "given the high price, rent must be ~igh in ~rop~rtion to abundance and not scarcity,'' whether In p~cuhar vineyards or on common corn lands. But this is begging the whole of the question. The price cannot be given. By the force of external de1~and and diminished supply the produce of an acre of Champa1gne grapes might permanently command fifty times t~1e l~bour that ' had been employed in cultivating it; but no possible Increase of SEC. r.J OF Tl-I.E RENT OF LAND. . 147 rfhe obvious cause of these effects is, that, in all comn1on monopolies, the demand i~ exterior to, and independent of, the production itself. The nutnber of persons, who might have·a taste for scarce wines, and would be desirous of entering into a competition for the purchase of them, might increase aln1ost indefinitely, while the produce itself was decreasing; and its price, therefore, would have no other limit than the numbers, powers, and caprices of the competitors for it. In the production of the necessaries of life, on the contrary, the demand is dependent on the produce itself: and the effects are therefore 'v-idely different. In this case it is physically itnpossible that the nun1ber of demanders should increase, "\vhile the qi.lantity of produce diminishes, since the denlanders can only exist by n1eans of the produce. In all con1mon monopolies, an excess of the value of the produce above the value of the labour employed in obtaining it, may be created by external demand. In the partied monopoly of the land which produces necessaries, such an excess can only be created by the qualities of the soil. In co1nn1on monopolies, and all productions except necessaries, the laws of nature do very little towards proportioning their value in exchange to their value in use. The san1.e quantity of grapes or cottons 1night, under different circu1nstances, be worth permanently three or three hundred days la-external demand or diminution of supply could ever permanently enable the produce of an acre of corn to command more labour than it would support. L~ |
