64 Rents, Wages, and Profits in Agriculture 



men and mechanics ; and as a consequence, 

 in these countries little stock is likely to 

 go from any other profession to the 

 improvement of land. 



More capital in this way is so diverted 

 in Great Britain — but even there, he 

 says, "The great stocks which are some- 

 times employed in farming have generally 

 been acquired in farming — the trade, per- 

 haps, in which of all others, stock is 

 commonly acquired most slowly." After 

 small proprietors, however, in Adam Smith's 

 opinion, rich and great farmers are in every 

 country the great improvers. The passages 

 I have quoted are from a general survey of 

 the progress of agriculture in Europe. And 

 they show that, in Adam Smith's opinion, 

 from the end of the mediaeval period — or, 

 we may say, from the time of the estab- 

 lishment of the English system of tenant 

 farming, down to his time (1776) — the 



