198 



ARISTOCRA C Y AND E VOL UTION 



Book III 

 Chapter i 



Mill argues 

 thus with 

 special refer- 

 ence to land 

 and labour ; 



but he over- 

 looks what in 

 actual life is 

 the main feat- 

 ure in the 

 case. 



The labour 

 remaining the 

 same, the pro- 

 duct varies 

 with the quality 

 of the land. 



production of commodities, it is equally applicable 

 to the few and the many as agents in the production 

 of social progress generally ; and the crisp phrases 

 and illustrations which Mill employs in formulating 

 it, put in the clearest and most forcible manner 

 possible the whole class of objections referred to at 

 the close of the last Book. 



Mill brings the argument forward with special 

 reference to agriculture. Let us take, he says in 

 effect, the products of any farm ; and it is obviously 

 absurd to inquire which produces most of it the 

 fields or the farm labourers. Now if all labour were 

 equal, and if there were only one farm in the world, 

 or if every acre of land, when the same labour was 

 applied to it, yielded the same amount of produce, 

 this would, no doubt, be true. The actual state of 

 the case is, however, widely different. Acres vary 

 very greatly in fertility ; and if the produce of one 

 the least fertile when cultivated by a given amount 

 of labour, be symbolised by ten loaves, the produce 

 of others, when cultivated by the same labour, will 

 be symbolised by loaves to the number of twelve, 

 fifteen, or twenty. Here, then, we have a constant 

 quantity of labour, which produces ten loaves from 

 each of the four acres in question ; but when 

 applied to the first, it produces ten loaves only ; 

 when applied to the three others, it produces two, 

 or five, or ten loaves in addition. About the first 

 ten loaves, in each case, it is not possible to argue. 

 So far as they are concerned, the result is in each 

 case the same ; with regard to them we cannot 



