OCR Text |
Show ~08 OF THE RENT OF LAND. [CH. III. the country, and if there were no poor ~oi!s, these resoltrces \vould still be called forth ; a ltn11ted territory, however fertile, vvoul.d ,soon b~ peopled; and \vithout any increase of difficulty 1n· the produc-tion of food~ rents would rise. It is evident then, that .difficulty of production has no kind of connexion \Vith increase of rent, except as, in the ~ctual state af 1n~st countries, i~ is the natural consequence of an Increase of capital and population, and a fall of profits and wages ; or, in other \vorcls, of an increase of \vealth. But after all, the increase of rents \V hich results fron1 an increase of price occasioned solely by the oTeater quantity of labour and capital necessary to b 1 . produce a giv~n quantity of corn on fresh lane, Is very n1uch n1ore liTnited than has been supposed; and by a reference to most of the countries \vith \V hich vve are acquainted, it \viii be seen that, practically, in1prove1nents in agriculture and the saving of labour on the land, both have been, and may be expected in future to be, a 1nuch 1nore po\verful source of increasing rents. It has already been she,vn, that for the very great increase of rents \vhich have taken place in this country during nearly the last hundred years, \Ve are tnainly indebted to improvements in agriculture, as profits have rather risen than fallen, and little or nothing has been taken fron1 the wages of fatnilies, if we include parish allowances, and the earnings of \Vomen and children. Consequently these rents must ha vc been a creation fron1 the SEC. VIII.] OF THE RENT OF. LAND. skill and capital en1ployed upon the land, and not a transfer from profits and \¥ages, as they existed nearly a hundred years ago. T'he peculiar increase of rents, '\lvhich has taken place in the I-Iighlands of Scotland during the last half century, is \!Veil known to have been occasioned in a great degree by the saving of labour on the land. In Ireland, neither the vvages of labour, nor the profits of stock on the land seetn as if they could adn1it of any 'considerable reduction; but there can be no doubt that a great augmentation of rents tnight be effected by an iinproved systen1 of agri-, culture, and a prosperous comn1erce, 'vhich, at the .san1e tin1e that it would sweep into flourishing cities the idlers which are now only half employed upon the land, 'vould occasion an increasing de ... n1and for the products -of agricultute, 'vhile the rates of profits and wages n1ight ren1ain as high as before. · Similar observations may be n1ade \Vith regard to Poland, and indeed almost all the countries of Europe. There is not one, in vvhich the real wages Qf labour are high, and scar.cely one in \Vhich the profits of agricultural stock are kno,vn to be considerable.. If no improvetnents 'vhatever in agriculture were to take place in these countries, and the future increase of their rents 'vere to depend upon an increase of price occasioned solely by the increased quantity ,of labour necessary to produce food, I am inclined to think that the progress of their rents \vould be very soon stopped. The pre ... sent rates of profits and wages are not such as p |