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Show ~14 OF THE RENT OF LAND. ( CH. III. it require us to say? We must say that the rents of the landlord have fallen and his interests have suffered, \vhen he obtains as rent above three-fourths n1ore of ra\V produce than before, and with that produce "rill shortly be able, according to 1\!Ir. Ricardo's own doctrines, to comn1and three-fourths' n1ore labour. In applying this language to our own country, we n1ust say that rents have fallen considerably during the last forty years, because, though rents have greatly increased in exchangeable value,-in the con1n1and of n1oney, corn, labour and n1anufactures, it appears, by the returns to the Board of Agriculture, that they are no\v only a fifth of the gross produce,:;:~ whereas they \vere fonnerly a fourth or a third. In reference to labour, we must say that it is lo\v in An1erica, although 've have been hitherto in the habit of considering it as very high, both in n1oney value and in the co·1nmand of the necessaries and co~veniences of life. And 've must call it high in s,veden; because, although the labourer only earns lo,v· n1oney wages, and \Vith these low \vages can obtain but fe,v of the necessaries and conveniences of life ,; yet, in the division of the whole produce of a laborious cultivation on a poor soil, p. larger proportion may go to labour.t * Reports from the Lords on the Corn Laws, p. 66. t It is specifically this unusual application of common terms which has rendered 1\tJr. Ricardo's work so difficult to be understood by many people. It requires indeed a constant and labori. ous effort of the mind to rrcollect at all times what is meant by htgh and low rents, C~:nd high or low wages. In other respects, it SEC. VIIX.] OF TI'IE RENT OF LAND. 215 Into this unusual language 1\!Ir. Ricardo has been betrayed by the fundatnental error of confounding cost and value, and the further error of considerinoo-ra\ v produce in the same light as manufactures. It might be true, that if, by in1provetnents in tnachinery, the produce of muslins vvere doubled, the increased quantity \Vould not. con11nand in exchange a greater quantity of labour and of necessaries than before, and \Vould have little or no effect therefore on population. But Mr. Ricardo has hin1- self said, that " if irnprovements extended to all the objects of the labourer's. consumption, \Ve should find hin1 probably, at the end of a verv fe,·v years, in possession of only a sn1all, if any adclition to his enjoyments."* Consequently, according to J.Vlr. Ricardo, population vvill increase in proportion to the increase of the n1ain articles consurr1~d by the labourer. But if population increases according to the necessaries \vhich the labourer can comn1and the increased quantity of raw produce \Vhich fall's to the share of the landlord 1nust increase the exchangeable value of his rents esti1nated in labour corn and comn1odities. And it is certainly by real' value in exchange, and not by an i1naginary ~tanclard, vvhich is to measure proportions or cost lll labour, that the rents and interests of landlords ha~ alwa!s appeared to me that the style in which the work is wntten, IS perfectly clear. It is never obscure, but when either the view itself is erroneous, or terms are used in an unusual sense. ' 1 ' Prine. of Polit. Econ. ch. i. p. g. P4 |
