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Show OF THE PRO~~JTS OF CAPITAL. [CR. V. And before we proceed to the actual state of things, it may be curious to consider in ':hat manner profits wo uld be affected under these circums.tan.ce s. At the commencen1ent of the culttvat1on of a fertile country by civilized colonists, an? \Vhile rich land was in <Yreat plenty, a sn1al1 portion only of the value of tl~e produce would be paid in the forn1 of rent. Nearly the ,vhole would be divided between profits and \vages ; and the proportion which each \vould take, as far as it was influenced by the share of each individual labourer, n1ust. be determined by the den1and and supply of capital con1pared with the den1and and supply .of labour: As the society continued to proceed, 1f the terntory were limited, or the soil of diffe_rent qualities,. it is quite obvious that the productive pow·ers of labour as applied to the cultivation of land must gradually diminish; and as a given quantity of capital and of labour would yield a sn1aller and smaller return, there would evidently be a less and less produce to be divided bet,veen labour and profits. If, as the po\vers of labour ditninished, tl~e pl~ysical wants of the labourer \vere als.o to d1mtn1sh in the san1e proportion, then the san1e share of the . 'vhole produce n1io·ht be left to the capitalist, and the rate of profifs would not necessarily . fall. But the physical wants of the labourer ren1a1n always the same; a11d though in the progr~s~ of society, frotn the increasing scarcity of proviswns compared with labol)r, these wants are in general less fully supplied, and the real w,.ages of labour SEC. 1.] OF THE PROF"ITS OF CAPI'fAL. 299 g,-adually fall; yet it is clear that there is a limit, and probably at n:a great distance, which cannot be passed. The con1mand of a certain quantity of food is absolutely necessary to the labourer in order to support himself, and such a family as will maintain merely a stationary population. Consequently, if poorer lands which required more labour were successively taken into cultivation, it \Vould not be possible for the corn wages of each individual labourer to be diminished in proportion to the dinlinished produce; a greater proportion of the \Vhole \Vould necessarily go to labour; and the rate of profits would continue regularly falling till the accumulation of capital had ceased. Such would be the necessary course of profits and \Vages in the progressive accun1ulation of capital, as applied to the progressive cultivation of new and less fertile land, or the further improvement of what had before been cultivated ; and on the supposition here made, the rates both of profits and of real wages \Vould be highest at first, and ~ould regularly and gradually diminish together, till they both came to a stand at the satne period, and the detnand for an Increase of produce ceased to be effective. . In the mean time, it will be asked, \vhat hecomes of the profits of capital employed in manufactures and cotnmerce a species of industry not like ~hat employed upo~ the land, where the productive. powers of l~bour necessarily diminish ; but w?e.re these po\vers not only do not necessarily dimtntsh, but very often greatly increase? |
