Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. 169 



necessary that more and more capital and labour should be ap- 

 plied to the task of raising food. If we suppose these to be em- 

 ployed on new land, more and more land will be perpetually 

 cultivated : and if we make the supposition already mentioned, 

 that the land of the country consists of a progression of soils of 

 decreasing fertility, each new soil cultivated, will yield a less sur- 

 plus produce to the labour employed upon it. 



This increase of population, and consequent extension of agri- 

 cultural labour to less productive soils, Mr. Ricardo conceived to 

 have been the progress of things in this country: and apparently 

 he conceived it also to be the necessary and universal progress of 

 nations. On this supposition his first main problem was to trace 

 the distribution of the various portions of the produce, as wages, 

 rent, and profits, which takes place in the course of this progress! 

 That this has been the course of events in England seems to 

 be clearly and demonstrably false. After Mr. Jones' reasonings 

 (Essay, chap. vii. sect. 6.), I do not conceive that any doubt 

 can remain on the subject. And it is remarkable that Mr. Ri- 

 cardo's error in this instance is not a mistaken assumption of 

 principles, but it is a defect in his deduction from his principles, 

 a part of his task which is generally supposed to be unexcep- 

 tionable. The error resides in his having neglected altogether the 

 effects of an increase in the power of argriculture, which, in Eng- 

 land, has been a change at least as important and as marked, as 

 the increase in the population. This being the case, it is evident 

 that the whole of his assumption of the nature of the econo- 

 mical progress of this country, and the views of the distribution 

 of wealth arising from this assumption, must fall to the ground. 

 It may however still be curious to see the exact consequences of 

 the assumptions now referred to; and moreover, our formulas 

 Vol. IV. Part I. Y 



