148 



CORN . — Rente — C&pttal. 



the surplus labourers. The unproductive consumer:* 

 here arc those classes variously engaged beyond the 

 sphere of agriculture ; but many of these pick up 

 but ft very moderate subsistence, and if labor was to 

 rise, they would become day-labourers'. 



It is impossible that either the demand for or the 

 supply of lalwr can be equal;! , where the chief grain 

 produce is rice ; and especially where artificial wants 

 are not numerous. If crops be abundant, they will 

 induce a less supply than before, of labor; if tin y fail, 

 the supply wbH far exceed the demand. The will toeui- 

 ploy and the will to be employed will not always meet 

 on equal terms. As a taste for luxuries yams amongst 

 the people, time will become of more value to diem, 

 capital will be more freely embarked on the soil, 

 labor w ill fall, and profits rise. The natural price of 

 Malayan labor here will probably be, in a great mea* 

 sure, regulated by the actual demand for it in rice culti- 

 vation, without reference to the market price of labor 

 on the Island (to which place the Province labourers are 

 averse to go, because they have to leave their families 

 behind,) which last is dependent on the supply of 

 Chinese and Chuliah labourers. The owners of land 

 of every class generally prefer Malayan labourer in 

 their rice-fields. 



But if the cultivation of Sugar, Indigo, Coffee and 

 other valuable exportable, produce weir to increase 

 greatly or even moderately beyond the present extent, 

 a constant demand for labor would arise, and the labor 

 bear a higher natural price, unless affected by external 

 circumstances, until graft) cuhivation hud reached its 

 extreme limit, and population become in excess; when, 

 should the market price of grain not rise, it would ne» 

 CCawfr fly fall. carrying along with it a portion of profits, 

 but leaving the rent untouched. 

 As Abilities for the distribution and subdivision, 



