Page images
PDF
EPUB

BOOK I. Chap. vii.

Sect. 4.

ing stationary) from whatever cause the rise proceeds, will always be followed by a decrease of the share of the producing classes in the products of the soil, relatively to the labor and capital they Farmers' employ; and by a corresponding rise in the produce rents of the landlords.

Let £100. be laid out on A, a soil paying no rent, and yielding only the ordinary profits of stock; and let the produce be 50 quarters of corn selling at £2. 48. per quarter, or £110. If the relative value of corn rises, and the price is raised 2s. a quarter, the £100. laid out on A will produce £115., of which £5. will be surplus profits. The farmers' profits, at his next contract with his landlord, will be reduced to the level of those of his neighbours. This can only be done by his retaining so much only of the produce of his land, as at the advanced prices will pay him £110.; the landlord will take the remainder, or the price of the remainder, and it will become rent. A, which before paid no rent, will now pay a rent of £5., and in like manner, upon all the superior soils which before paid rent, there will be a rise, from the decrease of the share of the producing classes in their produce, the produce itself remaining stationary.

So far, the decrease of the share of the producing classes, and the corresponding rise of rents, have been wholly unconnected with the cultivation, or even the existence, of inferior soils. The rise of raw produce, proceeds always, in the first instance, from an increasing demand without a correspond

Increase of

Rents.

Book I. Chap. vii.

ing increase of the supply. If a country had no Sect. 4. soil to resort to besides those already cultivated, the demand might keep constantly ahead of the Farmers slowly increasing supply, and the possible increase in the relative value of raw produce, and the consequent rise of rents, would be indefinite.

Increase of

Rents.

[ocr errors]

But when inferior gradations of soil exist, and can be resorted to, the rise in the exchangeable value of raw produce is limited. It will stop when the price of corn is sufficient to replace, with the ordinary rate of profit, the expence of cultivating as much of those inferior soils as will yield the produce necessary to restore the balance between the demand and supply. This state of things is what usually exists in extensive countries possessing soils of various degrees of goodness, and it is that which we shall more particularly examine while tracing the effects of a rise of rents from a decrease of the share of the producing classes in the products of the soil. But we must not, therefore, lose sight of the fact, that the rise of rents which takes place from the cause we are now tracing, is antecedent to, and independent of, the spread of tillage to inferior soils, and must take place to a much greater extent than we ever now see it, were there no inferior soils in existence.

The Increase of produce Rents is measured by the decreasing Fertility of Soils.

Where, in consequence of an increasing demand for raw produce, cultivation is spreading to inferior

Sect. 4.

Farmers'

soils, if the return from those soils, in spite of the Book I. increasing skill and augmented power of the agri- Chap. vii. culturists, be still less than the return from the old soils before was, the permanent rise of produce Increase of rents from this cause will be measured by the dif- Rents. ference between the return to a certain quantity of capital and labor from the new soils, and the return to the same quantity of capital and labor from the worst of the old soils.

If on A, a quality of soil, paying no rent, a certain quantity of labor and capital produces 55 quarters of corn, and on B a soil worse than A, the same quantity of labor and capital can produce only 53 quarters, then when the demand for corn, and the rise in its relative value becomes such that B can be cultivated, and pay the ordinary profits of stock, A will pay a rent of two quarters of corn: for B, which produces 53 quarters, returning the ordinary profits of stock, A, which produces 55 quarters, must return the ordinary profits of stock, and also two quarters of corn; which two quarters, or the price of them, will become surplus profits or rent.

It will be obvious that the rise of rents in this case, forms no addition to the resources of a country. The increased rents of the old soils are a mere transfer of a portion of the wealth already existing from the producing classes to the landlords: the nation, collectively, is neither richer nor poorer than it was; there has only been a change, and by no means a desirable change, in the distribution of wealth which it already possessed. In this

Sect. 4.

BOOK I. respect, as in many others, a rise of rents from Chap. vii. this cause contrasts, much to its disadvantage, with a rise from the two causes of which we first analyzed Increase of the operation.

Farmers'
Rents.

But the apprehensions which have been entertained, as to a necessary falling off in the returns to capital and labor generally, which it has been supposed must always follow a diminution in the returns to agricultural industry on the worst soils cultivated, are happily extravagant and groundless. Such a diminution in the power of agricultural industry, though a possible event, takes place in the progress of a wealthy people very rarely. I doubt if it ever takes place at all; and when it does takes place, we must not hastily conclude that because the quantity of corn remaining in the hands of the producing agricultural classes is diminished, there must therefore be a fall either in profits or wages, or that such producing classes would have the means of consuming either less corn, or less of any other commodity, than they did before the reduction of their share in the produce of the soil. For these conclusions, which look at first very like truths, are in fact fallacious, as a short examination will shew us.

The decreasing Fertility of Soils may be balanced by the increased Efficiency of manufacturing Labor.

Human industry is not wholly employed in producing raw produce: and its increasing efficiency

Book I.

Chap. vii.

Sect. 4.

Increased

Efficiency

facturing

in other departments may balance, and more than balance, the decreasing powers of agriculture: may enable the society to spare the additional proportion of men and capital required to produce an undiminished quantity of food for increasing num- of Manubers, and that without lessening the mass of wealth Labor. enjoyed by any class of men. This will appear more clearly from an example or two to which I solicit the reader's attention, as containing the proof of a fact very important to be understood, in examining the possible progress of human society, after population has become dense, and capital and the arts have made great progress. Let us first take the simplest case which involves the principle we wish to explain, and let us suppose ten shipwrecked mariners cast on some uninhabited shore, and dividing between them the task of providing their common food, clothing, and shelter. During the first year, let the exertions of five men be sufficient to supply their table, and the exertions of the other five their food, raiment, &c. In the next year, food may have become more scarce, and the time of eight of the men may be occupied in procuring it. But in the mean time, the skill of the artisan division may have so improved, that two men may be able to secure to the whole party the same quantity of clothing, shelter, &c. that before engrossed the industry of five. In this case, fourfifths of the laboring hands will be occupied in procuring food, instead of one-half as before. Still the consumption of articles of every description will remain the same throughout the little community.

« PreviousContinue »