312 
Of the Evolution of Rent, tfrc, 
[Oct. 
grazed ; and it never can be to the interest of any party so to increase the stock 
that the sheep should become diseased from want of sufficient nourishment: the 
greatest capital, therefore, which can be sunk in sheep, must be that which gives off 
yearly the greatest aggregate of net increase in stock, and this, from the procrea- 
tive power of the animals, must ever be greatly beyond that rate of net return 
which may be reckoned, for the time, the average rate of profits of the day. 
Practically then, I consider it quite impossible, that any applications of capital 
should be made indirect connexion with agriculture and the production of food, 
which besides profits, generally known as such, does not yield the elements of rent 
also ; and this is so simply, because God has in his bounty so constituted vege- 
table productions, that they shall yearly yield a four-fold, a five-fold, and in 
some cases a fifty, or a hundred-fold, nay, sometimes 1000-fold increase ; and be- 
cause among the animals, which God has also placed under man’s command, lie 
has ordained, that year by year there shall, in most cases be at least, a two-fold 
increase of numbers : and finally, because it must inevitably be always to the 
advantage of man to strive, at so accommodating seed and labour to the soil at 
his disposal, and live-stock to the tracts where they may find their nourishment, 
that the greatest possible net production shall be periodically set free for his use; 
whereas, the greatest net reproduction does not in fact coincide with a net return of 
10 or 20 per cent, which is reckoned a fair return in trade. 
Now, I infer from all the above considerations, that wherever man directly puts 
himself in skilful co-operation with the reproductive and procreative principle, the 
elements of rent are, year by year, in every stage of production : and whatsoever 
constitution of society may hold ; whether a part of the net produce be set aside 
under that denomination ; or whether it entirely goes to the use of the labourers 
who actually work on the soil ; to the remuneration of the labour, the reproduction 
of the capital, and the formation of the income of the employer of the capital, 
which many previously have been sunk to render particular tracts applicable to 
certain descriptions of cultivation, for which in their natural state they were not 
adapted ; or whether, under a different system of ownership, it may go to the 
mere support of the two first classes, and leave an excess in the hands of the per- 
sons who own the ground. If, for instance, an infant society was to spread 
itself over a country, in the manner I have supposed in the first sections, each 
family increasing, and again breaking into new families; each taking possession of 
so much vacant land as merely sufficed to yield food alone for their numbers; 
is evident, from what has above been shewn, that although the return each 
obtained for the capital of seed and implements employed, must be at the rate of 
some hundreds per cent, (a rate fully capable, in a society differently constituted, 
of yielding besides wages, a profit to capitalists, and a rent to landlords,) still it i* 
equally evident, that nothing but a sufficiency for the maintenance of the different 
families could be obtained from the small tracts which each had in occupation; 
and that nothing but a mere maintenance would ever be evolved for their con- 
sumption, even after the whole country had become densely populous, and after 
some considerable advance had been made in the knowledge of the productive 
arts; and the reasons for the country continuing in this state, of yielding mere 
wages for all its inhabitants, are these : namely, that the simple habits and igno- 
rance of the people, keep them contented with food alone— that succeeding in 
obtaining this with perhaps part only of the labour of the family, as they must do 
when such a ratio of increase is given off, generation after generation sought nothing 
more; and in consequence, accumulated no capital for indirect application to agri- 
ure, or to manufactures. Under these circumstances, no estates could 
