1831 .] 
Of the Evolution of Rent , c^c. 
313 
of a size more than sufficient to feed the men who lived and laboured on them ; 
and no investments could be found for capital, of a greater value than the occu- 
pant could obtain, by a mortgage probably of a part of the ensuing crop. If, in 
such a state of society, a government were to step in, and to seize, before it reacli- 
edits destination, a tenth, or a fifth, or a half of the produce ; it is manifest, that 
this might be effected, the population falling, or keeping back in a corresponding 
degree: but it is also equally manifest, that the produce thus appropriated, could 
never be legitimately entitled to the name of rent ; and that the men in power who 
exercised this authority, however they might be the lords of the soil, and of the luck- 
less inhabitants, could never stand towards them in the true relation of landlords. 
If all these labourers worked a little, and were idle during the rest of the year, they 
then would in reality enjoy the basis of landlord’s share : if one half labouied 
continually, and the other remained idle, the idle part would live upon the real, 
though possibly not the nominal rent. . I shall again advert to this part of the 
subject, when we come to the consideration of such taxes, as form a proportion of 
the gross produce of the soil . meantime I would point out again, what I endea- 
voured, some pages back, to fix on the attention, that rent does not inevitably 
proceed from the causes generally assigned to its formation, in recent works on 
political economy ; namely, the limitation of the extent of the land, and the exist- 
ence of varieties in the soil ; together with such intensity of demand for food as 
exists only in old and fully peopled countries : but that other causes must be in 
operation, ere rent can be known as a distinct income, for a distinct class ; as, tor 
instance, the prevalence of larger possessions, both in land and in capital, than 
suffice for the mere feeding of the labourers ; and tlie disposition, on the part of 
the inhabitants, to invest masses of capital in cultivation, in conjunction with the 
peculiar fecundity of plants and animals, to which all increase after its kind owes 
its origin. For example, it is obvious, that whether a country were uniformly 
fertile, or partly fertile and partly sterile, it might still be covered with a popula- 
tion, amongst whom no rent, or profits, were known by distinct denominations ; 
an d it is clear, that this population must be in proportion to the fertility of the 
various tracts 5 and it is also clear, that whether the districts were fertile or the 
reverse, the whole population would, whenever population was full, be found living 
f r0| u hand to mouth ; although they had amongst them the elements both of 
profits and of rents. If, in one district, on one acre, a produce of 10 measures be 
obtained from an expenditure in seed of one measure, and if the balance merely 
suffice for the support of one man ; while, in another less fertile district, an acie, 
from an equal expenditure, yield only two measures of produce, an extent of 
surface, equal to nine acres in place of one, will be required lor the support 
°f each individual and both men will be in the same circumstances, both 
have what supports him and no more ; and in neither case will there 
a landlord and capitalist, known distinctly as such ; and the labour either 
^stows must be the utmost which it is useful to apply- Nowhere are all the 
Editions fulfilled, limitation in extent, variety of soils, and a dense population, 
"uichare generally stated as being all-sufficient in the evolvement ot ient i and 
nr >thing but a class of labourers in being. Limitation in the extent of dispos 
a ^ e * an d, and the existence of varieties of soil, together with dense population, 
no means therefore insure the existence of landlords ; and it appears to me 
a Matter of great importance to know the reasons why rent may not be in exist 
!* Ce ’ with a dense population, offering a full demand for all the food that can 
e Produced, and while infinite varieties exist in the qualities of the soil ; and 
10 be assured that its existence depends not on these circumstances alone, but 
