OCR Text |
Show OF 'rHE REN'f OF LAND. [CH. IT T. four should stand in every square yard, but to fill all the planets of our solar system in the same way, and not only thetn, bnt all the planets revolving round the stars ,vhich are visible to the naked eye, supposing each of then1 to be a sun, and to have as many planets belonging to it as our sun has. Under this law of population, which, excessive as it tnay appear 'vhen stated in this vvay, is, I firmly believe, best suited to the nature and situation of man, it is quite obvious that sotne limit to the production of food, or son1e other of the necessaries oflife, tnust exist. Without a total change in the constitution of .human nature, and the situation of man on earth1 the whole of the necessaries of life could not be furnished in the san1e plenty as air, ·\vater, the elasticity of steam, and the pressure of the atn1osphere. It is not easy to conceive a 1nore disastrous present- one n1ore likely to plunge the human race in irrecoverable tnisery, than an unlin1ited facility of producing food in a lin1ited space. A benevolent Creator then, kno\ving the \vants and necessities of his creatures, under the la,vs to !'vhich he had subjected them, could not, in mercy, have furnished the whole of the necessaries of life in the same plenty as air and vvater. Thi.s shews at once the reason why the former are limited in quantity, and the latter poured out in profusion. But if it be granted, as it must· be, that a litnitation in the po,ver of producing food is .~bviously necessary to n1an confined to a litnited space, then the value qf the actual quantity of land \Vhich he has recei ved, depends upon the small quantity of labour neces- SEC. x.J 01• THE lt.E.NT OF LAND. 2~9 sary to work it, cotnpared with the number of per- • sons which it \Vill support; or, in other 'von:\s, upon that specific surplus so tnuch under-rated by Mr. Ricardo, which by the laws of nature terminates in rent, .If manufactqred con11nodities, by the gradations of n1achinery supposed by Mr. Ricardo, vvere to yield a rent, n1an, as he observes, 'vould do more by the s\vcat of his bro'tv ;:x: and supposing hin1 still to obtain the san1e quantity of con1n1odities, (vvhich, ho\vever, he vvould not,) the increase of his labour w.ould be in proportion to the greatness of the rent so created. l~ut the surplus, vvhich a given quantity of land yields in the shape of rent, is totally different. Instead of being a n1easure of the increase of labour, \Vhich is necessary altog~tber to produce the quantity of corn \Vhicb the land can yield, it is finally an exact rneasurc of the reliif fron1 labour in the production of f-ooJ granted to him by a kind Providence. If this final surplus be sn1all, the labour of a large portion of the society must be constantly en1 ployed iT~ proc~ri~1g, by the S\veat of their brows, the n1ere necessaries of life, and so- * That is~ supposing the gradati9ns were towards worse ma- . chinery, some of which it was necessary to use, but not otherwise. The reason why manufactures and necessaries will not admit of comparison with rcg~rd to rents !s~ that necessaries, in a limited territory, are always tending to ~he same exchangeable value, whether they hq.ve cost little or much labour; but manufactures, if not subjected to an artificial q;onopoly, must fall with the facility of producing them. \iVe caunot therefore suppose the price to b~ given; but if we could, facility of production would, in poth cases, be cq uall y· a n~ ea · ure of .relief from labour. Q 3 |