The foregoing facts furnish us the data necessary to decide what influence permanent soil improvements have on the rent of land. The improved parcels of land now grow more fertile. Their rentability also increases, while that of the others becomes not only relatively but absolutely less, if the demand remains unaltered. The whole is as if capital had been transformed into fertile land, and this added to the improved land.

SECTION CLVIII.

HISTORY OF RENT.—IN PERIODS OF DECLINE.

If a nation's economy be declining, in consequence of war for instance, the disastrous influence hereof on rent may be retarded by a still greater fall in wages or in the profit on capital. But it can be hardly retarded beyond a certain point.1

and the "progress of civilization" (but surely only to the extent that the latter improves the art of agriculture). Thus, too, John Stuart Mill, Principles, I, ch. 12; II, ch. 11, 15 seq.; III, ch. 4 seq.; IV, ch. 2 ff.

8 Thus, for instance, drainage works which, where properly directed, have paid an interest of from 25 to 70 per cent. per annum in England and Belgium on the capital invested.

1 "The falling of rents an infallible sign of the decay of wealth." (Locke.) In England, in 1450, land was bought at "14 years' purchase;" i. e., with a capital=14 times the yearly rent paid; in 1470, at only " 10 years' purchase." (Eden, State of the Poor, III, App., I, XXXV.) This was, doubtless, a consequence of the civil war raging in the meantime. The American war (1775-82) depressed the price of land in England to "234 years' purchase," whereas it had previously stood at 32. (A. Young.) The rent of land, in many places in France, declined from 10,000 to 2,000 livres, on account of the many wars during Louis XIV.'s reign. (Madame de Sévigne's Lettres, 25 Dec., 1689.) Even in 1677, it was only one-half of its former amount. (King, Life of Locke, I, 129.) The whole Bekes county (comitat) in Hungary was sold for 150,000 florins under Charles VI.; after the unfortunate war with France. (Mailath, Oesterreich, Gesch., IV, 523.) Compare Cantillon, Nature du Commerce, 248. In Cologne, a new house was sold in the spring of 1848 for 1,000 thalers, the site of which alone had cost 3,000 thalers; and there are six building lots which formerly cost over 3,000 thalers, now valued at only 100 thalers. (von Reden, Statist. Zeitschr., 1848, 366.) On the other hand, Napoleon's war very much enhanced English rents (Porter, Pro

As a rule, the decline of rents begins to be felt by the least fertile and least advantageously situated land. 23

SECTION CLIX.

HISTORY OF RENT.-RENT AND THE GENERAL GOOD.

1

should call at

We so frequently hear rent called the result of the monopoly of land, and an undeserved tribute paid by the whole people to land owners, that it is high time we tention to the common advantage it is to all. There is evidently danger that, with the rapid growth of population, the

gress of the Nation, II, 1, 150 ff.), because it affected England's national husbandry principally by hindering the importation of the means of subsistence. (Passy, Journal des Economistes, X, 354.)

Thus the price of lands, in Mecklenburg, between 1817 and 1827, fell 30 to 40 per cent. in the least fertile quarters; in the better, from 15 to 20 per cent. (von Thünen, in Facob, Tracts relating to the Corn Trade, 40, 187.) Per contra, see Hundeshagen Landwirthsch. Gewerbelehre, 1839, 64 seq., and Carey, Principles, I, 354.

The average rent in England was, in 1815, 17s. 34. In the counties, it was highest in Middlesex, 38s. 9d.; in Rutland, 38s. 2d.; Leicester, 27s. 3d.; lowest in Westmoreland, 9s. 1d. In Wales, the average was 7s. 10d.; highest in Anglesea, 19s.; lowest in Merioneth, 4s. Sd. In Scotland the average was 5s. 11⁄2d.; highest, Midlothian, 24s. 6d.; lowest, Highland Caithness, Cromarthy, Inverness and Rosse, from is. Id. to 1s. 5d.; Orkneys, 81⁄2d.; Sutherland, 6d.; Shetlands, 3d. In Ireland, the average was 12s. 9d.; highest in Dublin, 20s. 11⁄2d.; lowest, Donegal, 6s. (McCulloch, Stat., I, 544 ff.; Yearbook of general Information, 1843, 193.) In France, Chaptal, De l'Industrie Fr., 1819, I, 209 ff., estimates the average yield per hectare at 28 francs; in the Department of the Seine, 216; Nord, 69.56; Lower Seine, 67.85; in the upper Alps, 6.2; in the lower Alps, 5.99: in the Landes, 6.25. While in the Landes, only 20 francs a hectare are frequently paid, the purchase price in the neighboring Medoc is sometimes 25,000 francs. (Journal des Economistes, Jan. 15, 1851.) In Belgium, the average price of agricultural land is 52.46; in East Flanders, 53.19; in Namur, 29.24. (Heuschling, Statistique, 77.)

14 Rent is a tax levied by the land owners as monopolists." (Hopkins, Great Britain for the last forty Years, 1834.) For a very remarkable armed and successful resistance of farmers in the state of New York to the claims for rent of the Rensselaer family, represented by the government, see Wappäus Nord Amerika, 734

mass of mankind should yield to the temptation of gradually confining themselves to the satisfaction of coarse, palpable wants; that all refined leisure, which makes life and the troubles that attend it worth enduring, and which is the indispensable foundation of all permanent progress and all higher activity, should be gradually surrendered. (See § 145.) Here rent constitutes a species of reserve-fund, which grows greater in proportion as these dangers impend by reason of the decline of wages and of the profit of capital, or interest. Besides, precisely in times when rent is high, the sale and divisibility of landed estates act as a beneficent reaction against the monopoly of land, which is always akin to the condition of things created by rent.

But it is of immeasurably greater importance that high rents deter the people from abusing the soil in an anti-economic way; that they compel men to settle about the centers of commerce, to improve the means of transportation, and under certain circumstances to engage in the work of colonization; while, otherwise, idleness would soon reconcile itself to the heaping together of large swarms of men.3 The anticipation of rent may render possible the construction of railroads, which enable the land to yield that very anticipated rent.

2 Malthus, Additions to the Essay on Population, 1817, III, ch. 10; compare also Verri, Meditazioni, XXIV, 3. The Physiocrates call the land owners classe disponible, since, as they may live without labor, they are best adapted to military service, the civil service etc., either in person or by defraying the expenses of those engaged in them. (Turgot, Sur la Formation etc., § 15; Questions sur la Chine, 5.)

3

* Well discussed by Schäffle, Theorie, 65, 72, 83. Malthus considers the capital and labor expended in agriculture more productive than any other, because they produce not only the usual interest and wages, but also rent. If, therefore, the manufacturing and commercial profit of a country: = 12 per cent., and the profit of capital employed in agriculture : = 10 per cent., a corn-law which compelled the capital engaged in manufactures and commerce to be devoted to agriculture would be productive of advantage to the national husbandry in general, if the increase in rent should amount to about 3 per cent. (On the Effects of the Corn Laws and of a Rise or Fall in the Price of Corn on the Agriculture and the general Wealth of the Country, 1815. The Grounds of an Opinion on the Policy of Restricting the Impor

CHAPTER III.

WAGES.

SECTION CLX.

THE PRICE OF COMMON LABOR.

Like the price of every commodity, the immediate wages of common labor is determined by the relation of the demand and supply of labor. Other circumstances being the same, every great plague1 or emigration is wont, by decreasing the supply, to increase the wages of labor; and a plague, the wages of the lowest kind of labor most. And so, the in

tation of Foreign Corn, 1815.) Compare supra, § 55, and the detailed rectification in Roscher, Nationalökonomik des Ackerbaues etc, § 159 ff.

High rate of Italian wages after the plague in 1348, but also many complaints of the indolence and dissoluteness of workmen. (M. Villani, I, 2 ff., 57 seq. Sismondi, Gesch. der ital. Republiken in Mittelalter, VI, 39.) In England, the same plague increased the wages of threshers from an average of 1.7 d. in 1348, to 3.3 d. in 1349. Mowers received, during the 90 years previous, of a quarter of wheat per acre; in 1371- 1390, from to The price of most of their wants was then from to as high as in A. Young's time, and wages 4 as high. (Rogers, I, 306, 271, 691.) The great earthquake in Calabria, in 1783, produced similar effects. (Galanti, N. Beschreiburg von Neapel, I, 450.) Compare Jesaias, 13, 12. On the other hand, depopulation caused by unfortunate wars is not very favorable to the rate of wages; instance, Prussia in 1453 ff, after the Polish struggle, and Germany, after the Thirty Years' War.

How much it contributes to raise wages that workmen can, in a credible way, threaten to move to other places, is illustrated by the early high wages and personal freedom of sailors. Compare Eden, State of the Poor, I, 36. In consequence of the recent great emigration from Ireland, the weekly wages of farm hands in that country was 57.4 per cent. higher than in 1843-4. In Connaught, where the emigration was largest, it was 87 per cent. higher. (London Statist. Journ., 1862, 454.)

3 Compare Rogers, I, 276, and passim.

creased demand, in harvest time, is wont to increase wages; and even day board during harvest time is wont to be better.45 In winter the diminished demand lowers wages again. Among the most effective tricks of socialistic sophistry is, unfortunately, to caricature the correct principle: "labor is a commodity," into this other: "the laborer is a commodity."

6

Moreover, common labor has this peculiarity, that those who have it to supply are generally much more numerous than those who want it; while the reverse is the case with most other commodities. Another important peculiarity of the 'commodity " labor, is, that it can seldom be bought, without at the same time reducing the person of the seller to a species of dependence. Thus, for instance, the seller cannot

66

And this in proportion as the uncertainty of the weather causes haste. In England, the harvest doubles wages. (Eden.) In East Friesland, it raises it from 8-10 ggr. to 2 thalers sometimes (Steltzner); in the steppes of southern Russia, from 12-15, to frequentiy 40-50 kopeks. This explains why the country people who come into the weekly market are anxious, during harvest time, to get rid of their stocks as fast as possible. According to the Sta tist. Journal, 1862, 434, 448, the average wages in harvest and other times, amounted to:

The reason why the wages of females rises more in harvest time than the wages of males may be the same that in many places in Ireland has made emigration more largely increase the wages of women. (1. c., 454) Every excess of workmen depresses, and every scarcity of workmen enhances the wages of the lowest strata relatively most.

5 The wages of English sailors was usually 40-50 shillings a month. During the last naval war, it rose to from 100 to 120, on account of the great demand created by the English fleet. (McCulloch, On Taxation, 40.)

The winter wages of German agricultural laborers varies between 6.1 and 20 silver groschens; summer wages between 7.9 and 27.5 silver groschens. Emminghaus, Allg. Gewerbelehre, 81, therefore, advises that in winter the meal time of workmen in the fields should be postponed to the end of the day, and winter wages then made less low than at present.