314 
Of the Evolution of Rent, fyc. 
[Oct. 
on the state of society, coupled with the power possessed by all primary wealth, of 
being obtained with less labour than it can support ; for without this knowledge, 
the circumstances of the whole of Agricultural Asia, and of many other parts of 
the world, would be quite incomprehensible. 
I have said, that the elements of rent will always be given off, wherever agri- 
culture, as a science, is known ; whether the excess reproduced beyond wliat 
sufficed for supporting the producing labour, and for yielding the rate of profits 
of the day, be swallowed up by a dense population, exclusively employed on 
minute portions of land for a part of their time; or whether it beset aside 
yearly, to replace a capital which may have been invested in fitting a soil for 
certain descriptions of cultivation, for which by nature it was not calculated: and 
in this latter way I admit, that in an improved country, where manufactnres 
flourish, the last capital sunk in raising food for the use of the manufacturing 
population, may yield merely a sufficiency for replacing the capital stock employ- 
ed and the profits on that stock. But although this maybe occasionally the 
case, it will still be found to be true, that to the capital, in immediate co-opera- 
tion with the reproductive principle, a much greater rate of profits than 10 or 
20 percent, is given off; although this greater rate may just suffice to bring, 
in the whole course of a lease, the average rate of profits of the day to the 
greater capital which may indirectly have been sunk in manuring, in paring and burn- 
ing, and in otherwise altering the nature of a soil; and after the produce, in the 
course of a term of years, has sufficed to repay the capital originally advanced 
with its ordinary profits during the interval, I conceive it to be probable that 
in most cases, the greater net reproduction than serves to form the profits of 
the day, subsequently following the ordinary expenditure of seed and labour 
only, will ultimately find its way into the landlord’s bands, as rent. Why, 
I would ask, but with this view, should landlords ever permit the occupation 
of their lands? persons must offer them a return for the favor bestowed, or the 
use of the land can never be obtained. Periodical reproduction and increase go 
on in many more ways than one ; and if the expense of keeping land always tit 
for the growth of wheat, be such as to swallow up all the increase yearly gi' en 
off beyond the usual profits of trade, it will be manifestly to the landlord’s interest 
to change its destination, and give it to some one who will grow oats, or graze sheep, 
or even let rabbits breed on it. For under some one of these systems of manage* 
ment, however bad the land, a much greater annual reproduction must be evolved, 
than suffices for the repayment of the stock so invested, and the ordinary profits ou 
that stock also, and therefore for the formation and payment of rent ; and by what* 
ever system the landlord is individually most enriched, that will ultimately be 
found to be the one pursued in all countries, where extensive tracts of land have 
become private property. Hence it may be inferred, that whatever the extent ot 
capital may be indirectly employed in agriculture, all lands in old countries, 
when society is properly constituted, will be found yielding rent. 
It has been usual, in the later works on wealth, to treat all labour, and employ 
ment of capital, as if really enjoying the reproductive and incremental povei 
if in fact they were themselves original sources of profit and wages ; and it ^ 
become the custom to consider all the powers of nature which tend, in any wav, t0 
assist man in his endeavours at effecting the modification of products, as possessing 
the power of enriching mankind more efficiently than the soil, than the very 
matrix m which alone reproduction and increase can be effected : and this because 
t m soil alone is limited in its extent ; while the aid obtainable from water, 
shine, from wind, and from steam, are evez’to be had by all who will e^ny 
