| OCR Text |
Show · OF THE PROFITS OF CAPITAL. [CH. V. crease of population, that, partly O\tving to parish assistance and the more extended use of potatoes, and partly to task-\vork and the increased en1ployn1ent of \tvomen and children, the labouring classes had on an average an increased con1n1and over the necessaries of life. I an1 inclined to think, therefore, that the increased rate of profits from 17'93 to 181 S did not arise so much fron1 the dimi-nished quantity of agricultural produce given to the labourer's family, as from the increase in the amount ~f agricultural produlce obtained by the san1e. nun1ber of families. As a matter of fact ' I l1ave no doubt that, as I stated in the chapter on rent, the capital en1ployed upon the last land taken into cultivation in 1813 was more productive than r the capital en1ployed upon the last land taken into cultivation in 1727; and it appears to n1e that the causes \tvhich have been mentioned are sufficient to account for it theoretically, and to tnake such an event appear not only possible, but probable, and likely to be of frequent recurrence. It 'vill be said, perhaps, that son1e of the causes which have been noticed are. in part accidental; and that in contenlpla,ting a future period, we cannot lay our account to improven1ents in agriculture, and an increase of personal exertions in the labouring classes. This is in son1e degree true. At the satne tin1e it n1ust be allowed that a great demand for corn of home o-ro\vth must tend oo·reatly b · to encourage in1provements in agriculture, and a great demand for labour must stimulate the actual population to do more work; and \vhcn to these two SEC. Ill.] OF THE PHOFITS OF CAPl'J'AL. 325 circntnstances we add the necessa·ry effect of a rising price of corn owing to an .increase of wealth, without a proportionate rise of other commodities ' the probabilities of an increase in the productive powers of labour sufficient to counterbalance the effect of taking additional land into cultivation are so strong, that, in the actual state of most countries in the world, or in their probable state for some centuries to carne, we may fairly lay our account to their operation when the occasion calls for them. . I should feel no doubt, for instance, of an increase 1n the rate of profits in this country for t\venty years together, at the beginning of the t\\rentieth century, cotn~ared \Vith the t\\renty years ,vhich are now c~rrnng on; provided this near period were a penod of _profound tranquillity and peace and abundant capital, and the future period were a period in which capital ,vas scanty in proportion to th~ den1and for it o\ving to a \tvar, attended by ~he cu?utnstances of an increasing trade and an Increasing dctnand for agricu 1 tt~ral prod nee sin1ilar to those which Vlere experienced from 1793 to 1813. But if this be so, it follows, that in the actual st~te. of ~hj_ngs in n1ost countries of the \Vorld, and Witlun hn11ted pe.riods of 1noderate extent the rate of prof.i t s w-1· 11 pract1·c .a 1l y depend tnore 'u pon the ~auses ,vhich affect the reiative abundance or scarcity of capital, than on the natural powers o.t.· th e 1a st 1a n d taken. I. n' to cultivation. And con.-l sequently, to d~ell on this latter point as the sole, or even the 1nan1 cause \Vhich detcrrnines profits, Y3 |
