THE PRODUCT OF LABOUR ALONE 203 



their original basis ; and before we proceed farther, Book m 



there is one fact more in connection with them on 



which it is necessary for the purposes of our present Labour, how- 



. _ f^. c M ,1 ever, must be 



argument to insist. Ot soils the same as to area, held to pro - 

 but not the same as to quality, some, it has been ^mum 

 said, will produce ten loaves, some fifteen, some necessar >' to 



support the 



twenty ; and soils may exist, perhaps, which would labourers 

 produce only five. But in order that any soil may 

 be cultivated by human labour, it is necessary that 

 the product should be at least sufficient to keep the 

 men alive who devote their labour to cultivating it. 

 No set of men, unless artificially subsidised, could 

 continue to cultivate any region if the product of 

 twelve months' labour would support them for only 

 three months. It follows, therefore, from this 

 truism that no soils can be cultivated which will 

 not yield to labour a certain minimum product. 

 Now, though this minimum is, in a certain sense, 

 the product of labour and of land jointly, for all 

 purposes of practical reasoning "it is the product of 

 labour alone. It is so because the sole object of 

 practical reasoning about the matter is to determine 

 the principles on which the product of the land is 

 to be distributed ; and with regard to that minimum 

 there can be no doubt or question. It must go to 

 the labourer, and it can go to no one else. The 

 landlord, if there be one, cannot take any part of 

 it ; for if he did, the labourer would die, and there 

 would cease to be any product to take. Labour, tx>tn in agri- 

 then, in agriculture must be held for all practical 

 purposes to produce the whole of that minimum 



