218 Professor Whewell on the Mathematical Exposition 



values of ?n. Thus if the average capital on the soil be three 

 times that which is employed on the worst land, 1=3; and if the 



average rent be \ of the produce, this gives m = -^ = A. It is to 



be observed that the capital here supposed to be employed on 

 good land, includes all the successive doses up to the last, which 

 are introduced in Mr. Mill's mode of viewing the subject; and 

 therefore in a highly cultivated country I would perhaps not be 

 less than 3 or 4, and might probably be much more. And it 

 may be noticed also that in the case in which the charges now 

 under consideration operate by withdrawing the last dose of 

 capital from cultivated land, / is the multii^le which the whole 

 capital employed on average land is of this last dose. 



It appears then that if capital be accumulated on the land, 

 I will be greater than 1 ; perhaps as great as 2, 3 or 4. That in 

 this case in will always be greater than I, and m greater than 

 m ; and that then the fraction of a tax on produce which falls 

 on price will be very small, the main portion falling on rent. 



It is to be observed, that the values of m are quite inde- 

 pendent of the actual quantity of the produce. The produce may 

 be greatest when m is least, because it may be that a large 

 quantity of capital is employed on every soil, and the produce, 

 though very great, may be principally employed in paying the 

 profits of capital. 



30. Such are the results of the principles whicH were origi- 

 nally assumed, when traced to their consequences in the final 

 distribution of a tax, on the suppositions made in the course of 

 the investigation. Some of these suppositions have been arbi- 

 trary, l)ut the nature of the results would not be affected, and 

 their quantity but slightly modified, by reasoning on any other 

 admissible hypothesis. Thus it has been supposed, in Art. 22, 

 that (c„-, = cj the ratio of the productive powers of the two 



