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Show 330 OF THE PROF'ITS OF CAPITAL. [cH. v. · ackno\vledge, as we certainly n1ust do, that the opening a ne\V tnarket for the manufactures in question would at once put an end to the fall of profits. . Upon the sarne principle, of considering the pri~es of commodities as constant, lVIr. Ricardo is of opinion, that if the prices of our corn and labour were to fall, the profits of our foreign trade would rise in proportion. But what is it, I would ask, that is to fix the prices of commodities in foreign markets?-not merely the quantity of labour which has been employed upon them, because, as was ~oticed in a former chapter, co1nn1odities will be found selliil.g at the same P!ice in foreign tnarkets, 'vhieh have cost very different quantities of labour. But if they are determined, as they certainly are, . both on an average and at the tnotncnt, by supply and den1and, what is to prevent a rnuch larger supply, occasioned by the competition of capital thro\vn out of employment, from rapidly lo\vering prices, and with them reducing the rate of profits? If the p~1 ice of corn during the last twenty-five years could have been kept at about fifty shillings the quarter, and the increasing capital of the country had chiefly , been applied to the working up of exportable commodities for the purchase of foreign corn, I clln strongly disposed to believe that the profits of stock would have been lo\ver instead of higher. The tnillions which have been en1ployed in permanent agricultural improvements~~ have had * The millions of capital which have been expended in drain· ings, and in the roads and canals for the conveyance of agricul· SEC. I'r·] OF THE PROFITS OF CAPITAL. 331 no tendency whatever to lower profits; but if, in conjunction with a large portion of the common capital employed in domestic agriculture, they bad been added to the already large capitals applied to the working up of exportable commodities, I can scarcely feel a doubt that the foreign nlarkets would have been more than fully supplied; that the prices of commodities would have been such as to make the profits of stock quite low;* and that there vvould have been both a greater mass of moveable capitals at a loss for employment, and a greater disposition in those capitals to emigrate than has actually taken place. Mr. Ricardo has never laid any stress upon the influence of permanent i1nproven1ents in agriculture on the profits of stock, although it is one of the tnost itnportant considerations in the 'vhole cotnpass of Political Economy, as such improvements unquestionably open the largest arena for the etnployment of capital without a diminution of profits. He observes, that " however extensive a country n1ay be, where the land is of a poor quality, and where the importation of food is prohibited, the 1nost 1noderate accumulations of capital tural products, have tended rather' to rais'e than lower profits; and millions and n1illions may yet be employed with the same advantageous effect. * Our present body of manufacturers, when they call for import~ d corn, think chiefly of the additional demand for their goods occasioned by the increased imports, and seem quite to forgetthe prodigio\ls increase of supply which must be occasioned by the competition of so many nwre capitals and workmen in the same line of business. |