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although the whole process has the appearance of adding to the revenue of the state, it does in fact greatly injure the industry and resources of the community, and saps the main pillars of public happiness and security.

We now come in conclusion to a most important article-the profits of the tenant; that which is to induce him to invest his capital in the cultivation of the soil, and which is to enable him to accumulate a further capital for similar investments. To deny that it is the interest of the community that these profits should be high, would be to deny an obvious truth; and it seems undoubtedly true also that their general average must rise with the necessity created by the progress of society for investing capital upon inferior land. For the increased price of produce necessary to make a return for that investment, and which is in fact the cause of it, and the continuance of which can alone keep inferior land in cultivation, must of course raise the profits of capital already invested in the cultivation of land of a superior quality, where produce can be raised at a cheaper

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This will not admit of dispute if we consider that, produce of the same quality bearing but one price in the market, the cultivator, whose expenses compared with the amount of his produce were before so low as to enable him to make a profit by selling it cheap, must now make a superlucration, when the price rises high enough to remunerate the grower, whose expenses are high when compared with the amount of his produce. But this superlucration must of course come out of the pockets of the consumer, and will therefore raise by its amount the general average of agricultural profits. It is

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true that a large portion of this superlucration will soon be added to the landlord's rent; but this will neither occur so rapidly nor so completely as to deprive the tenant of a considerable share in the advantage. The effect of this improvement will be to raise the relative condition of the farmer in society, and to induce persons possessing such capitals, as would authorise them to assume the rank of gentlemen, to invest them upon hired land; large portions of which will be accumulated into one farm; and a considerable increase in the quantity of surplus produce, the invariable consequence of large farms, will take place. This is also a necessary ingredient in a well constituted community, when society has advanced far in the commercial and manufacturing career; for the "free hands" as Sir James Steuart calls them, (that is, persons not employed in agriculture,) increasing with every step in that progress, a corresponding increase in the surplus produce which the agriculturist can spare to send to market of course becomes necessary for their food. But we have seen that the primary cause of this train of consequences is to be traced to the large profits of the tenant, inducing considerable capitalists to assume that character. The increase of those profits is therefore absolutely necessary to the public welfare as society advances, and constitutes the farmer's share of that general amelioration which should devolve upon every rank of the community from that advancement. The following passage from Mr. Malthus's "Inquiry into the Nature of Rent," p. 40, throws considerable light upon this subject. "I have no hesitation in stating that, independently of irregularities in the currency

of a country, and other temporary and accidental circumstances, the cause of the high comparative money price of corn, is its high comparative real price, or the greater quantity of capital and labour which must be employed to produce it; and that the reason why the real price of corn is higher, and continually rising in countries which are already rich, and still advancing in prosperity and population, is to be found in the necessity of resorting constantly to poorer lands—to machines, which require a greater expenditure to work them, and which consequently occasion each fresh addition to the raw produce of the country to be purchased at a greater cost. In short, it is to be found in the important truth that corn, in a progressive country, is sold at the price necessary to yield the actual supply; and that, as this supply becomes more and more difficult, the price rises in proportion."

If then it be desirable that a country should continue in a progressive state till it has reached its point of non-reproduction, and if the power of extending cultivation and increasing produce "depend entirely upon the existence of such prices, compared with the expense of production, as would raise rents in the actual state of cultivation;" in other words, if the tenant's clear profits upon his present rent are high enough to enable him to accumulate capital and increase his future rent, so that cultivation may proceed briskly, and agriculture extend itself in proportion to the wants of an increasing population; then it follows as a necessary consequence, that it is the interest of the state to take care that the tenant's clear profits shall at least suffer no abatement. But

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this involves greater sacrifices than every one who would agree in the abstract conclusion might perhaps be willing to make.

There may be many who will agree, that the average high price of corn in England, for example, "is the necessary result of the great superiority of her wealth and population, compared with the quality of her natural soil, and the extent of her territory;" and that, to preserve her in the same progress of prosperity and power, that average high price must be continued; who will yet hesitate to look the real difficulty of effecting this object in the face, or possess strength of mind enough to resist the temptation offered by the French or German agriculturists, who will be ready enough to offer corn at a low price, upon the simple condition of transferring British capital to their territory. The alternative is certainly tempting to the immediate feelings of selfishness, when we refer back to the schedule at the beginning of this chapter, and find the list of expenses, which must all be discharged by the general consumer to their full amount out of the price paid for raw produce, before the tenant's profits, the last item in the list, but so necessary to the prosperity of agriculture, begin to accrue. For it is evident, that these profits are nothing more or less than the net surplus after all other outgoings are discharged, and are, strictly speaking, "the excess of price above the cost of production," as hath been incorrectly asserted to be the case of rent. It is also clear, that if the state of cultivation be deteriorated by the diminution of any of those outgoings, the clear profits, (though perhaps not absolutely annihilated,) will be diminished in a still greater degree. The alternative therefore is

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fairly before the public, either to make the necessary sacrifice for the perseverance in a progressive state of prosperity, or to enjoy the present moment, at the risk of a progressive state of decay in future. They should recollect, however, that when the option is made, it will be too late to retrace their steps, and a little too absurd to complain of the consequences.

I should here have concluded this brief investigation of agricultural profits and expenses, were it not for the peculiar circumstances under which the agriculture of England now labours with respect to this item of tenant's profits.

After a protection, which has certainly been more than sufficient, as the event has shown, against the competition of foreign corn, an apparently permanent diminution in the price of raw produce has nevertheless ensued, which has not only annihilated the tenant's profit on inferior land, but has also materially trenched upon the item next liable to be affected, viz. the landlord's rent, and which must, if not remedied, as a natural consequence, soon affect the other outgoings, and the general state of cultivation, of revenue, and of every branch of national prosperity.

I think it will be peculiarly instructive to the advocates for making England again a country exporting corn to perceive that, although the surplus produce above the wants of the whole community, for which they so strenuously contend, now presents itself to their wishes, and that this surplus has lowered the price of corn so as to distress the agricultural interest to the greatest degree, and therefore so as to give more than a reasonable facility to exportation, yet, in point of fact, none has been exported, but the

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