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Show 154 OF THE RENT OF LAND. [ CH. III. and labour fallen* on the more eligible lands of a country, other lands, less favourably circumstanced with respect to fertility or situation, might be occupied with advantage. · The expenses of cultivation, including profits, having fallen, poorer land, or land more distant from rivers and markets, though yielding at first no rents, n1ight fully repay these ex- . penses, and fully· answer to the cultivator. And again, when either the profits of stock, or the wages of labour, or both, have still further fallen, land still poorer or still less favourably situated, might be taken into cultivation. And at every step it is clear, that if the price of produce do not fal1, the rent of land must rise. And the price of produce will not fall so long as the industry and ingenuity of the labouring classes, assisted by the capitals of those not en1ployed upon the land, can find sonlething to give in exchange to the cultivators and landlords, which will stin1ulatt< them to continue undiminished their agricultural exertions, and n1aintain their excess of produce. * When a given portion of labour an.d capital yields smaller returns, whether on new land or old, the loss is generally divided between the labourers and capitalists, and wages and profits fall at · the same time. This is quite contrary to Mr. Ricardo's language. But the wages we refer to are totally different. l-Ie speaks of the cost of p.roducing the necessaries of the labourer ; I speak of the necessanes themselves. In the ~arne language Mr. Ricardo says, (p. 115.) that the rise of rent never falls upon the farmer. yet does not the fall of profits go to rent? It is of very little consequence to the ~armer and ~abourer, even on Mr. Ricardo's theory, that they ~ontmue to receive between them the same nominal sum of money, If that sum in exchange for necessaries is not worth half what it was before. , , SEC. 11.] OF THE U.ENT OF LAND. 155 It may be laid down, therefore, as an incontrovertible truth, that as a nation reaches any considerable degree of wealth, and any considerable fullness of population, the separation of rents, as a 'kind of fixture upon lands of a certain quality, is a la\v as invariable as the action of the principle of gravity; and that rents are neither a mere ~o~inal value, nor a value unnecessarily and in- , JUnously transferred · from one set of people to ' another; but a most real and essential part of the \vhole value of the national property, and placed by the la\vs of nature where they are, on the land, by \Vhon1soever possessed, ,whether by fe\v or n1any, whether by the landlord, the crown, or the actual cubti vator. ~his then is the mode in \V hich rent would sepa~ ·ate itself fron1 profits and ·wages, in a natural state of things, the least interrupted by bad govern~ nent, o~ any kind of unnecessary monopoly ; but 111 the different states in which mankind have lived, it is but too well kno\vn that b~d governtnent and unnecessary monopolies have been freque~ t; a~d it is certain that they will essentially modify · this natural progress, and often occasion a pren1ature formation of rent. I~ most of the great eastern monarchies, the soveretgn has been considered in the li o·h t of the owner o~ ~he s·oi~. This premature m~nopoly of the Ian~ JOined With the two properties of the soil, and of 1ts products first noticed, has enabled the g~vernm~nt to claim, at a very early period, a certain portion of the produce of all cultivated land· and under whatever name this may be taken, it i~ |
