642 KEPOET— 1882. 



MONBA Y, A TIG UST 28. 



The following Report and Papers were read : — 



1. Report of the Go7nmittee for inquiring into the present Appropriation of 

 Wages and other sources of income, and considering how far it is con- 

 sonant ivith the economic progress of the United Kingdom. — See Reports, 

 p. 297. 



2. The Abstract Theory of Bent. J??/ F. T. Edgeworth. 



The writer attempts to present the Ricardian theory as a first approximation, 

 at once requiring and required by a more accurate statement. 



Let a line, o.v, represent by its parts the quantities of land of each quality. Let 

 perpendiculars thereto represent amounts of labour and sacrifice expended upon 

 land. On each unit rectangle of the plane, .ry, erect a rectangular parallelepiped 

 proportional to the corresponding ainount of produce. Then the total produce may 

 be conceived as gathered into a barn of a peculiar shape. The highest point is the 

 rectangular comer, o. From this point the height of the straight walls, o.v and oy, 

 gradually diminishes down to a certain minimum height, i. The extremities of 

 these straight walls are connected bj' an outer wall, in general curvilinear or stair- 

 shaped, of the same minimum height. The figure is completed by a sloping roof. 

 A level floor, of height i, separates off a loft containing the landlord's portion of 

 the total produce. The rest of the building may be divided by another level floor 

 into two storeys, containing the portions of the capitalist -farmers and labourers 

 respectively. 



Now, the total contents being unaltered, let the roof be raised. The height of 

 the outer wall vnW be increased, the contents of the loft will be diminished. Again, 

 the roof being prolonged, but not otherwise altered, let the total contents be in- 

 creased. The lieight of the outer wall being diminislied, the contents of the loft will 

 be increased. Let both roofs be raised and total contents correspondingly increased, 

 the contents of the loft will be increased. And so forth. 



Of course these metaphorical statements are but grossly approximate. It is not 

 possible to arrange lands as Nos. 1, 2, and 3, according to their productivity ; for 

 productivit}^, being a relation between produce and expenditure, maj^, for one land 

 as compared with another, be greater or less according to the difi'erent amounts of 

 expenditure considered. Accorduigly, the yz curves of our roof are not necessarily 

 parallel. One may start at a great height, and descend rapidly, another begin low, 

 and decline gently. Thus greater expenditure need not correspond to greater rent. 

 This liolds not only as between difi'erent lands, but also the same land under dif- 

 ferent cultivations. If, owing to improved cultivation, the same total produce is 

 raised with less expenditure, rents need not be lowered ; even money-rents may be 

 raised. Again, though the return to the last dose of capital will be just what the 

 farmer could have obtained elsewhere by investment without trouble of manage- 

 ment, yet the return to his whole farming capital will not be in the same proportion, 

 but rather regulated by the condition that he cannot with advantage transfer himself 

 and his capital to any other business. 



These and other exceptions, suggested mostly by Ilicardo himself and his disciples, 

 are calculated rather to fulfil than destroy the Ricardian rule. The abstract theory 

 is as it were a type-photograph of the di\ersified real forms. It is an approximation 

 not only near to, but on the only way to, the full truth. Those who now sneer at 

 the great discoverer, forget that witliout his general map they would never have 

 found out the region of their petty explorations. 



3. The Eicardo Theory of Bent. By Alfred Milnes, M.A., F.8.S. 



Various weak points may be observed in the Ricardo theory as generally stated 

 and applied : — that great difficulty is experienced by skilled economists in main- 

 taining their self-consistency with regard to it, as evidenced (e.^.) by certain 



