OCR Text |
Show 184 OJi"" THE RENT OF LAND. [cH. III r to the whole quantity raised, is S{)ld at the natural or necessary price, that is, at the price necessary to obtain the actual an1ount of produce, although by far the largest part is sold at a price very much above that 'vhich is necessary to its production, O\Ving to this part being produced at less expense, while its exchangeable value retnains unditninished. The difference bet\veen the price of corn and the price of n1anufactures, with regard to natural or necessary price, is this; that if the price of any manufacture \Vere essentially depressed, the \vhole 1nanufacture vvould be entirely destroyed; ,;vhereas, if the price of corn \vere essentially depressed, the quantity of it only would be dininished. There would be son1e machinery in the country still capable of send·jng the comn1odity to market at the reduced price. The earth has been sometin1es con1pared to a vast n1achine, presented by nature to tnan for the production of food and ra\v n1aterials; but, to 1nake the resemblance n1ore just, as far as they admit of comparison, \Ve should consider the soil as a present to tnan of a great nurnber of n1achines, all susceptible of continued improvement by the applica-tion of capital to theln, but yet of very different original qualities qnd powers. · This great inequality in the powers of the machinery employed in producing raw produce, fot:n1s · one of the n1ost ren1arkable features ,vhich distin.guishes the machinery of the lancl fron1 the u1a~ chinery e1nployed 1n manufactures. When a J.l1acl)ine in n1anufactures is invented, SEC. V.] OF TilE !tENT OF LAND. 185 ,vbich ,vill produce n1ore finished \Vork 'vith less labour and capital than before, if there be no patent, or as soon as the patent has expired, a sufficient number of such machines n1ay be made to supply the whole demand, and to supersede enti.rely the use_ of all the old machinery. The natural consequence is, that the price is reduced to the price ·of product!on fron1 the best machinery, and if the price were to be depressed Io,ver, the whole of the con1n1odity \vould be \Vithclrawn from the n1arket. The machines which produce corn and ra'v Inaterials, on the contrary, are the gifts of nature, not the works of man ; and vve find, by experience, that these gifts have very different qualities and po\vers. The 1nost fertile lands of a country, those 'vhich, like the best n1achinery in manufactures, yield the greatest products \Vith the least labour _an~l capital, are never found sufficient, O\ving to the .second n1ain cause of rent before stated, to supply the effective demand of an increasi no- po-l . b · pu atton.. The price of ra\v produce, therefore, naturally rises till it beco1nes sufficiently high to pay the cost of raising it 'vith inferior machines, ·and by a more expensive process; and, as there · cannot be t\vo prices for cor~ of the san1e quality, all.the other n1achines, the working of \vhich req~ nres less capital cotnpared ,vith the produce, n1ust y1eld rents in proportion to their goodness. Every e~xtensive country may thus be considered as P?ssess~ng a gradation of n1achines for the productJon of corn and ra'vv materials, including in this |