154 <.*on %',-*- /?''■ t&— Cqpital. 



By the time tiiat rents have thus assumed a defi- 

 nite and tangible shape, divested of the risks and in. 

 conveniences now attending their realization, t be 

 farming land-owners will have risen to the condition 

 of landlords living on renls alone. But if, from the 

 peculiar situation of tins coast, (he capital generated on 

 the soil, or that derived from ir;ide T or from 

 the influx of substantial settlers, a larger number of 

 cultivators than there is at present, in proportion to the 

 * hole population, should be separated from the agri- 

 cultural mass, lb en 1 he ahnvp suppositious may not be 

 verified. In such a population as ours is, hemmed 

 within a narrow space, it is greatly to be wishrd that 

 a fair proportion of consumers, or rather of persons 

 employed in trade or in other pursuits, should accom- 

 pany our increase of agricultu l ists. 



Land, in its natural state of tall primeval forests, as it 

 exista here, cannot be said to yield any rent. But the 

 poorest land reclaimed from this jungle, although it 

 may lie incapable of lieing advantageously cultivated, 

 will yield a small rent as pasture for cattle. There is 

 hardly any natural pasture; so rent is included in the 

 price of all cattle, more Of less. After harvest, the cattle 

 are generally allowed to range the stubble-fields, then 

 thy, free of rent. Yet owners of poor land are often 

 glad to allow any one to occupy it on the mere condi- 

 tion of keeping it clear of jungle, looking forward to 

 the chance of its increasing in value, when laud shall 

 have become scare**. 



The rent, therefore, which Jand might l>e supposed 

 to yield on its natural state, but now yielding only 

 •200 gunlangs an orloug, cannot l>e taken into the ac- 

 count. !t cannot be expected that land less produc- 

 tive than this will be cultivated at a money-rent un- 

 less through necessity and the fall of wages, two alter- 

 natives tacotning every day more distant. But land 



