306 
Of the Evolution of Rent, fyc. 
[Oct, 
If all lands were of tlie same degree of fertility, and equally well situated with 
respect to markets, and if the same improvement had been introduced in their 
cultivation, which was adopted in the tract under consideration ; it is evident, that 
the same extension of cultivation and the same evolvement and increase of rent 
would have generally taken place, provided the amounts realized under that deno- 
mination were sufficiently great to form the independent means of support to the 
proprietors of the land : and that every tract from which, by the introduction of 
the impi*oved agricultural process, an increased gross reproduction was obtained, 
would be yielding profits equal to the average profits obtained in manufactures ; 
rents to the landlords, increasing with the increasing desire of capitalists to make 
their new accumulations productive ; and wages, increasing in the aggregate, in 
proportion to the increasing number of labourers, whom the capitalists, with 
the concurrence of landlords, had found it to their advantage to bring into 
employment. 
One of the leading principles upon which we have reasoned in this essay is, that 
wherever a quantity of food sufficient for the support of a man is obtainable, with 
an exertion of so much labour as man is able to make, there a man will be found in 
being. Now, in the very outset of the career of enrichment, it may be true, that a man, 
without the aid of implements, and without sufficient command of capital to enable 
him to work in agriculture, efficiently, and in due season, might barely raise from 
the soil, with his utmost exertion, what sufficed for his maintenance. But this is not 
the case after capital has come into operation, and after fitting and scientific ar- 
rangements have been made with regard to the treatment of the soil and seed. The 
employment of spades, for instance, in due season insured, in the illustrative case 
already given, to the persons making use of them, if they themselves continued to la- 
bour, a much greater quantity of food than sufficed for their actual support. Still, 
however, the principle is true, that a sufficiency of food will call a being into existence 
for its consumption. Let us suppose then, that this cultivator found more needy 
persons than himself in existence, and offered them a sufficiency for their support, 
on the condition of their devoting their continued labour to his purposes. The food 
he formerly raised himself, he now raises through their means ; and the quantity 
realized, if all were offered in exchange for labour and its results, would inevitably 
exchange for a greater quantity of labour than had been necessary for its production. 
The advantage here pointed out, would originally be enjoyed by all who had so 
much capital to sink in cultivation as served for this end, whether land were, or 
were not, still lying waste for future appropriation ; and the results of this advantage 
we have, in the last section, been treating as the profits of the stock of capital thus 
invested. But if there were greater difficulties of any kind to be encountered in 
breaking up and clearing new tracts, than in proceeding in the regular routine of 
cultivation in old lands, and if, at the same time, there were many capitals under ac- 
cumulation, there would be an immediate evolvement of rent properly so called; that 
is, there would be found many persons willing to offer the proprietor of the cultivat- 
ed tracts a remuneration out of the proceeds thence realized, merely on the con- 
dition of his allowing them the use of land. 
It is easy to say, unappropriated land existing, no-body would set to work as 
farmers, under existing proprietors ; each would at once run to unoccupied tracts, 
and become himself not only capitalist, but landlord also. But many more persons 
must be possessed of capital enough for carrying on the routine of improved culti- 
vation than can be possessed of what would serve for breaking up new lands ; and 
as, therefore, there must be a greater demand for old than for uncleared tracts, 
the persons already in possession of these cultivated tracts will enjoy advantages 
