Book I. Chap. vii. Interests of to those of Classes. accumulated from profits exclusively, and the power of the owners of profits to accumulate, to be dependant on the rate of profit, it followed that at every fall in the rate of profit, the national power of ac- Landlords cumulation was diminished, and a disastrous check not opposed given to the sole means of providing for an in- other creasing population. There is no one of these various positions which is not partially or altogether false; but to persons possessed with an opinion of their truth, the great original error of supposing every increase of rent to indicate a corresponding diminution in the returns yielded by agriculture to the producing classes, seemed to lead at once to the conclusion, that at every step in the elevation of rents, the elements of national prosperity were weakened, and the other classes of the community exposed to corresponding privations. These views are embodied in many striking passages of Mr. Ricardo's writings, which form the framework of a system erected by him and finished by others who have adopted his views. Those who will take the trouble of turning to his publications, will find him declaring in different passages, some of which have been already quoted, that the increasing rents proceed always, not from additional wealth created on the soil, but from a transfer of wealth which before existed into the hands of the landlords that rent invariably proceeds from the application of additional capital to agriculture with a diminished return that nothing which does not alter the relative fertility of the lands cultivated can increase rents: that improvements in agriculture do not increase Chap. vii. Sect. 7. Interests of to those of other Classes. BOOK I. rents' that such improvements lower rents at least for a time, and lessen the means of the landlords, their ability to pay taxes, &c.: that increasing rents Landlords bring no addition to the resources of a country: not opposed that every rise in rents is a mere transfer of value, advantageous only to the landlords, and proportionably injurious to the consumers: and, finally, that the interests of the landlords are always opposed to those of every other class in the community. The erroneous views in which these positions originated, proceeded no doubt from imperfect observation and hasty reasoning; there is no reason whatever to believe, that they were prompted by malignity, or put in circulation to create mischief. But, however calm and free from thought of evil may be the philosophy from which false political theories are engendered, they are no sooner afloat and current in the world, than they necessarily come into contact with prejudices and passions which convert them into sources of very serious delusions. Mistaken views and excited feelings as to the sources of the prosperity of the landed proprietors, like those which have lately prevailed in England, have a double bad effect. They lead the people to look with jaundiced and angry eyes upon augmentations in the revenue of the propri 1 See too on this point Macculloch. 2 "It follows, then, that the interest of the landlord is always opposed to the interest of every other class of the "community." Ricardo, Essay on the Influence of a low Price of Corn on the Profits of Stock, p. 20. Sect. 7. Landlords etors, which are in truth only so many indications Book I. and effects of a great and most desirable increase Chap. vii. in the resources of the country. And when discussions have arisen as to practical measures, the Interests of same mistaken views and feelings have evidently not opposed served, first to make one party querulous and angry, Classes. and then the other, as if in self-defence, suspicious and reluctant. to those of other SECTION VIII. Summary of Farmer's Rents. Chap. vii. THE fact that these rents prevail almost exclu- BOOK I. sively in England, is sufficient to fix upon them earnest attention. They deserve it on another ac count. Sect. 8. Summary Rents. There are indications, faint in some quar- of Farmer's ters, stronger in others, but discernible in many, that the European nations will all, sooner or later, approach partially, at least, to a similar system. We have shewn reasons for believing, that their progress towards it will on the whole be very slow; but still it is not the less true that the composition and capabilities of countries in which farmer's rents prevail, must be distinctly understood, if we would thoroughly comprehend either the peculiar economical condition of our own country, or the probable direction and character of the future career of our neighbors. It certainly will be wise, while devoting ourselves to this task, not to repeat an error which U Sect. 8. BOOK I. has blinded many late writers to truths of a yet Chap. vii. more general application: which has led them, while speculating on circumstances peculiar to themSummary, selves, sometimes wholly to neglect those ruder and Rents. more prevalent systems, the results of which decide of Farmer's the fortunes and condition of the largest portion of the human race: at other times, to confound and confuse things and circumstances essentially dif ferent, under the cover of imperfect analogies, made more illusory by the careless use of general terms, and idle attempts to reason deductively from them. We are all, as Englishmen, occasionally more liable than could be wished, to some of these mistakes; we are much too prone to consider the state of society in which we exist as a type of all others, and this narrow and mistaken assumption is necessarily the parent of much ignorance and many errors. England is, in fact, at the extreme end and verge of the economical career of nations, as far as that career is yet known; at a point not yet reached by any other considerable community; and one which has placed her in a position, if not more desirable, yet very different from theirs1. We see men here, in agriculture as well as in all the other branches of human industry, aiding their native powers of production by the use of an unusually large mass of accumulated stock, which the 1 I ought, perhaps, to except the Low Countries; but I shall have occasion to shew hereafter, that although farmers rents prevail extensively in those countries, their economical position is still very different from that of England. Chap. vii. Summary Rents. skill and invention of successive generations has Book I. been tasked so to apply, as to add gradually but constantly to the productive powers of the existing race. This capital, and the power it has created, in of Farmer's their separate application to the art of agriculture, enable the soil to support a population, of which the whole amount is triple that of the cultivators. The owners of an imposing mass of accumulated force, themselves maintain and employ the whole of the industrious population. The proprietors of the soil are no longer exclusively either rulers in peace, or leaders in war, and are not the direct sources of subsistence to any part of the population. The nation is influenced by revenues, as it is governed by institutions, in estimating which, the landowners appear only as a part. The national territory, and the estates of the proprietors of land, preserve of course precisely the same extent, while the wealth and numbers of classes wholly independent of the soil, are swelling and multiplying almost indefinitely. Are the fortunes of the landowners in the mean while stationary? Do they sink gradually into insignificance? Do they cease to occupy a useful and prominent station in the community? None of these things happen. By the consequences of a part of the physical constitution of the earth, from the effects of which communities of men could not escape, were they perverse enough to wish it, the landed body preserves a wholesome and modified, though no more an exclusive influence; and its members remain 2 Exclusive of menial servants, of course. |