The Political Economist and the Land. 123 



It therefore follows that " the contrary circumstances," such as 

 " the neglect of cultivation and improvements, the fall in the 

 real price of any part of the rude produce of land, the rise in the 

 real price of manufactures from the decay of the manufactur- 

 ing art and industry, the declension of the real wealth of the 

 society; all tend to lower the real rent of land, to lower the real 

 wealth of the landlord, and to diminish his power of purchas- 

 ing either the labour or the produce of the labour of other 

 people." ^ In this sense he was led to infer that the interests 

 of the landlord are inseparable from those of the community. 

 Such reasoning does not, however, preclude him from recognis- 

 ing that the individual interest of the landlord can under 

 certain circumstances become antagonistic to the other two 

 interests which go to make up the wealth-producing factors in 

 a society. Instances are easily found where the prosperity of 

 either labourer or merchant, or both, might be detrimental to 

 the landlord, and vice versa. Thus, for example, a rise in rents, 

 if neutralised by an equivalent fall in either wages or profits, 

 is a loss to the merchant and labourer, and no gain to the 

 community. On the other hand, a rise in wages, which, unless 

 neutralised by a rise in prices, is a direct advantage to the 

 labourer, leaves a reduced surplus to be shared by the landlord 

 and farmer, and the reduction of the general rate of profits 

 would benefit the owner of rents at the expense of the 

 merchant. 



But Smith would have gone further in this direction than 

 most economists of the present day would be prepared to 

 advance. He would have boldly asserted that agricultural 

 improvements, such as the introduction of a new fertiliser, the 

 invention of fresh machinery, and the better organisation of 

 labour, would ultimately benefit the landlord only ; that, in 

 other words, the farmer as a farmer would receive, except 

 temporarily, no advantage from such circumstances, though as 

 a member of the community he would indirectly share in any 

 benefit which improved its condition. 



To Smith's views on rents must be attributed such reasoning 



' Wealth of Nations,Bk. I. ch. xi. p. 318, 5th ed. 



