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Show 182 OF Tli::E RENT OF IjAND. ( CH. 1.1 I . n1ainder to yield what rent can be got fo~ them in 11atural pasture, which, though sma!l, 'v1ll bear a large proportion to the labour and captt~l en1ployed. In proportion, therefore,_ as the relattv~ state of ·prices is such as to occaston a progressIve fall of rents 1nore and more lands \Vill be gradually thro\vn out ~f cultivation, the ren1ainder will be \VOrse cultivated, and the di1ninution of produce will proceed still faster than the diminution of rents. If the doctrine here laid do\vn respecting the la\vs which govern the rise and fall of rents, be near the truth, the doctrine ,vhich tnaintains that, jf the produce of agriculture \vere sold at_ such a price as to yield less neat surplus, agriculture would be equally productive to the general stock, must be very far fron1 the truth. With regard to my own conviction, indeed, I feel no s~rt of ~oubt that if, under the impression that the h1gh price of ra'v produce, \vhich occasions rent, is as injurious to the consun1er as it is advantageous to the landlord, a rich and in1pr~ved nation were detern1ined by la \V to loweT the price of produce, till _no su~·plus in the shape of rent any 'vhere remained, 1t , would inevitably throw not only all the .poor land, but all except the very best land, out of cultivation, and probably reduce its produce and population to less than one-tenth of their former amount. &EC. v.] OF THE ltENT OF Li,\.N D. 183 SECTION V. On the Dependance of tlte actual Quantitlj of Produce obtained from the Land, upon the existing Rents and the existing I,) rices. Fron1 the preceding account of the progress of rent, it follows that the actual state of the natural rent of land is ne.cessary to the actual produce ; and _ that the price of corn, in every progressive country, n1ust be just about equal to the cost of production on land of the poorest quality actually in use, \Vith the addition of the rent it \Vould yield in its natural state; or to the cost of raising additional produce on old land, which additional produce yields only the usual returns of agricultural stock "'ith little or no rent. It is quite obvious that the price cannot be less; or such land would not be cultivated, nor such capital etnployed. Nor can it ever n1uch exceed this price, because it \Viii ahvays answer to the land ... lord to continue letting poorer and poorer lands, as. long ~s he ?an get any thing tnore than they Will pay tn their 11(\tural state; and because it \viii always answer to any farmer who can comtnand c_apital, to lay it out on his land, if the additional produce _resulting frotn it \Vill fully repay the profits of Ius stock,; although it yields nothin(F to his landlord. 0 It follows then, that the price of corn, in reference N4 |
