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men possess the power to draw from the productions of 
labour to the extent of those sums in money. These facts 
may seem of slight import to the producers of wealth, yet 
they involve principles of deep interest to the whole body 
of society; for if the incomes in question were subdivided 
and spread over such numbers of receivers that no one 
should have more than from five hundred to a thousand 
pounds income beyond what might come from the exercise 
of his talents and labour, the sum drawn from productive 
labour would remain as at present, but, in the supposed 
case, the wider division of the surplus wealth would stimu 
late and strengthen the powers of productive labour, [ant 
the creation of wealth would be extended greatly beyond 
what it can be now. In the case of landlords the possession 
of an estate is of a duplex nature ; the landlord is a posses- 
sor, because he can sell and convey the land to another, 
whilst the tenant has possession for the time, on condition 
of transferring part of the produce of his labour on the 
land to pay the rent. It is clear that rents can only be paid 
out of the products of the farmers’ labour, — when they are 
fixed in money the farmer must buy the money with his pro- 
duce before he can pay the rent. The actual share of the 
produce thus transferred for the use of land will always be 
inversely , as prices rise and fall. When corn is at 60s. per 
quarter, four bushels will pay a rent of 30s. per acre, but when 
the price falls to 40s. it will take six bushels to pay that same 
rent, and in like proportion for other kinds of produce. Thus 
fixed rents are against the farmers, and in favour of the 
landlords, just as prices are high or low, and in the case of 
corn above cited, to the extent of 50 per cent, extra paid by 
the farmer, at the same time, too, when he gets the least for 
the other portion of his produce. 
The rents of mills, machinery, warehouses, and shops for 
producing and distributing wealth have the same bearing 
on productive labour as in the case of farm rents, for when 
