2 Rents y Wages, and Profits in Agriculture 



the kind of payments that are made in the 

 form of rent. And secondly, there is the 

 question of the historical changes in the 

 amount or value of the rent. The two sets 

 of questions are seen to be closely related, 

 from the fact that the amount of the rent 

 that is exacted by the landlord is found to 

 depend, partly at any rate, on the kind of 

 payment that is made, and partly also on 

 the general relations of landlord and tenant ; 

 and the further we go back the greater 

 the importance of the qualitative character 

 of the rent in determining its quantity. 

 The historical method is specially suited for 

 a study of agricultural rent, because even at 

 the present day all the important forms of 

 rent that have appeared in the past are 

 still represented, and we constantly have 

 reversions to older ideas. 



Sir Henry Maine has well said that an 

 ancient legal conception corresponds not to 



