It will be seen by the table, that, in a progressive country, rent is not only absolutely increasing, but that it is also increasing in its ratio to the capital employed on the land; thus when four hundred and ten was the whole capital employed, the landlord obtained three and a half per cent; when one thousand one hundred-thirteen and a quarter per cent; and when one thousand eight hundred and eighty-sixteen and a half per cent.
The landlord not only obtains a greater produce, but a larger share.
TABLE, shewing the Progress of Rent and Profit under an assumed Augmentation of Capital Capital estimated to quarters of wheat [200, 210, 220, 230, 240, 250, 260, 270]
Profit per cent [50, 43, 36, 30, 25, 20, 15, 11]
Neat produce to quarters of wheat after paying the cost of production on each capital. [100, 90, 80, 70, 60, 50, 40, 30]
Profit of 1st portion of land in quarters of wheat. [100, 86, 72, 60, 50, 40, 30, 22]
Rent of 1st portion of land in quarters of wheat. [none, 14, 28, 40, 50, 60, 70, 78]
Profit of 2nd portion of land in quarters of wheat. [ - ,90, 76, 63, 52 1/2, 42, 31 1/2, 23]
Rent of 2nd portion of land in quarters of wheat. [ - , none, 14, 27, 37 1/2, 48, 58 1/2, 67]
Profit of 3rd portion of land in quarters of wheat. [ - , - , 80, 66, 55, 44, 33, 24]
Rent of 3rd portion of land in quarters of wheat. [ - , - , none, 14, 25 36, 47, 56]
Profit of 4th portion of land in quarters of wheat. [ - , - , - , 70, 57 1/2, 46, 34 1/2, 25.3]
Rent of 4th portion of land in quarters of wheat. [ - , - , - , none, 12 1/2, 24, 35 1/2, 44.7]
Profit of 5th portion of land in quarters of wheat. [ - , - , - , - , 60, 48, 36, 26.4]
Rent of 5th portion of land in quarters of wheat. [ - , - , - , -, none, 12, 24, 33.6]
Profit of 6th portion of land in quarters of wheat. [ - , - , - , - , - , 50, 37 1/2, 27 1/2]
Rent of 6th portion of land in quarters of wheat. [ - , - , - , -, - , none, 12 1/2, 22 1/2]
Profit of 7th portion of land in quarters of wheat. [ - , - , - , - , - , - , 40, 27.6]
Rent of 7th portion of land in quarters of wheat. [ - , - , - , -, - , - , none, 12.4]
Profit of 8th portion of land in quarters of wheat. [ - , - , - , - , - , - , - , 29.7]
1st period, 2nd ditto, 3rd ditto, 4th ditto, 5th ditto, 6th ditto, 7th ditto, 8th ditto When the whole capital employed is [200, 410, 630, 860, 1100, 1350, 1610, 1880]
Whole amount of rent received by landlords to quarters of wheat [none, 14, 42, 81, 125, 180, 248 1/2, 314 1/2]
Whole amount of profits to quarters received by owners of stock [100, 176, 228, 259, 175, 270, 241 1/2, 205 1/2]
Profits per cent on the whole capital [50, 43, 36, 30, 25, 20, 15, 11]
Rent per cent on the whole capital [ - , 3 1/2, 6 3/4, 9 1/3, 111/2, 13 1/4, 15 1/2, 16 1/3]
Total produce to quarters of wheat, after paying the cost of production [ 100, 190, 270, 340, 400, 450, 490, 520]
Rent(7*) then is in all cases a portion of the profits previously obtained on the land. It is never a new creation of revenue, but always part of a revenue already created.
Profits of stock fall only, because land equally well adapted to produce food cannot be procured; and the degree of the fall of profits, and the rise of rents, depends wholly on the increased expense of production:
If, therefore, in the progress of countries in wealth and population, new portions of fertile land could be added to such countries, with every increase of capital, profits would never fall, nor rents rise.(8*)If the money price of corn, and the wages of labour, did not vary In price in the least degree, during the progress of the country in wealth and population, still profits would fall and rents would rise; because more labourers would be employed on the more dIstant or less fertile land, in order to obtain the same supply of raw produce; and therefore the cost of production would have increased, whilst the value of the produce continued the same.
But the price of corn, and of all other raw produce, has been invariably observed to rise as a nation became wealthy, and was obliged to have recourse to poorer lands for the production of part of its food; and very little consideration will convince us, that such is the effect which would naturally be expected to take place under such circumstances.
The exchangeable value of all commodities, rises as the difficulties of their production increase. If then new difficulties occur in the production of corn, from more labour being necessary, whilst no more labour is required to produce gold, silver, cloth, linen, &c. the exchangeable value of corn will necessarily rise, as compared with those things. On the contrary, facilities in the production of corn, or of any other commodity of whatever kind, which shall afford the same produce with less labour, will lower its exchangeable value.(9*) Thus we see that improvements in agriculture, or in the implements of husbandry, lower the exchangeable value of corn;(10*)improvements in the machinery connected with the manufacture of cotton, lower the exchangeable value of cotton goods; and improvements in mining, or the discovery of new and more abundant mines of the precious metals, lower the value of gold and silver, or which is the same thing, raises the price of all other commodities. Wherever competition can have its full effect, and the production of the commodity be not limited by nature, as in the case with some wines, the difficulty or facility of their production will ultimately regulate their exchangeable value.(11*) The sole effect then of the process of wealth on prices, independently of all improvements, either in agriculture or manufactures, appears to be to raise the price of raw produce and of labour, leaving all other commodities at their original prices, and to lower general profits In consequence of the general rise of wages.
