我的书签
添加书签
移除书签Chapter Of the Produce of Land, which sometimes does, and sometimes
PART II.—Of the Produce of Land, which sometimes does, and sometimes does not, afford Rent.
Human food seems to be the only produce of land, which always and
necessarily affords some rent to the landlord. Other sorts of produce
sometimes may, and sometimes may not, according to different
circumstances.
After food, clothing and lodging are the two great wants of mankind.
Land, in its original rude state, can afford the materials of clothing and
lodging to a much greater number of people than it can feed. In its
improved state, it can sometimes feed a greater number of people than it
can supply with those materials; at least in the way in which they require
them, and are willing to pay for them. In the one state, therefore, there
is always a superabundance of these materials, which are frequently, upon
that account, of little or no value. In the other, there is often a
scarcity, which necessarily augments their value. In the one state, a
great part of them is thrown away as useless and the price of what is used
is considered as equal only to the labour and expense of fitting it for
use, and can, therefore, afford no rent to the landlord. In the other,
they are all made use of, and there is frequently a demand for more than
can be had. Somebody is always willing to give more for every part of
them, than what is sufficient to pay the expense of bringing them to
market. Their price, therefore, can always afford some rent to the
landlord.
The skins of the larger animals were the original materials of clothing.
Among nations of hunters and shepherds, therefore, whose food consists
chiefly in the flesh of those animals, everyman, by providing himself with
food, provides himself with the materials of more clothing than he can
wear. If there was no foreign commerce, the greater part of them would be
thrown away as things of no value. This was probably the case among the
hunting nations of North America, before their country was discovered by
the Europeans, with whom they now exchange their surplus peltry, for
blankets, fire-arms, and brandy, which gives it some value. In the present
commercial state of the known world, the most barbarous nations, I
believe, among whom land property is established, have some foreign
commerce of this kind, and find among their wealthier neighbours such a
demand for all the materials of clothing, which their land produces, and
which can neither be wrought up nor consumed at home, as raises their
price above what it costs to send them to those wealthier neighbours. It
affords, therefore, some rent to the landlord. When the greater part of
the Highland cattle were consumed on their own hills, the exportation of
their hides made the most considerable article of the commerce of that
country, and what they were exchanged for afforded some addition to the
rent of the Highland estates. The wool of England, which in old times,
could neither be consumed nor wrought up at home, found a market in the
then wealthier and more industrious country of Flanders, and its price
afforded something to the rent of the land which produced it. In countries
not better cultivated than England was then, or than the Highlands of
Scotland are now, and which had no foreign commerce, the materials of
clothing would evidently be so superabundant, that a great part of them
would be thrown away as useless, and no part could afford any rent to the
landlord.
The materials of lodging cannot always be transported to so great a
distance as those of clothing, and do not so readily become an object of
foreign commerce. When they are superabundant in the country which
produces them, it frequently happens, even in the present commercial state
of the world, that they are of no value to the landlord. A good stone
quarry in the neighbourhood of London would afford a considerable rent. In
many parts of Scotland and Wales it affords none. Barren timber for
building is of great value in a populous and well-cultivated country, and
the land which produces it affords a considerable rent. But in many parts
of North America, the landlord would be much obliged to any body who would
carry away the greater part of his large trees. In some parts of the
Highlands of Scotland, the bark is the only part of the wood which, for
want of roads and water-carriage, can be sent to market; the timber is
left to rot upon the ground. When the materials of lodging are so
superabundant, the part made use of is worth only the labour and expense
of fitting it for that use. It affords no rent to the landlord, who
generally grants the use of it to whoever takes the trouble of asking it.
The demand of wealthier nations, however, sometimes enables him to get a
rent for it. The paving of the streets of London has enabled the owners of
some barren rocks on the coast of Scotland to draw a rent from what never
afforded any before. The woods of Norway, and of the coasts of the Baltic,
find a market in many parts of Great Britain, which they could not find at
home, and thereby afford some rent to their proprietors.
Countries are populous, not in proportion to the number of people whom
their produce can clothe and lodge, but in proportion to that of those
whom it can feed. When food is provided, it is easy to find the necessary
clothing and lodging. But though these are at hand, it may often be
difficult to find food. In some parts of the British dominions, what is
called a house may be built by one day’s labour of one man. The simplest
species of clothing, the skins of animals, require somewhat more labour to
dress and prepare them for use. They do not, however, require a great
deal. Among savage or barbarous nations, a hundredth, or little more than
a hundredth part of the labour of the whole year, will be sufficient to
provide them with such clothing and lodging as satisfy the greater part of
the people. All the other ninety-nine parts are frequently no more than
enough to provide them with food.
But when, by the improvement and cultivation of land, the labour of one
family can provide food for two, the labour of half the society becomes
sufficient to provide food for the whole. The other half, therefore, or at
least the greater part of them, can be employed in providing other things,
or in satisfying the other wants and fancies of mankind. Clothing and
lodging, household furniture, and what is called equipage, are the
principal objects of the greater part of those wants and fancies. The rich
man consumes no more food than his poor neighbour. In quality it may be
very different, and to select and prepare it may require more labour and
art; but in quantity it is very nearly the same. But compare the spacious
palace and great wardrobe of the one, with the hovel and the few rags of
the other, and you will be sensible that the difference between their
clothing, lodging, and household furniture, is almost as great in quantity
as it is in quality. The desire of food is limited in every man by the
narrow capacity of the human stomach; but the desire of the conveniencies
and ornaments of building, dress, equipage, and household furniture, seems
to have no limit or certain boundary. Those, therefore, who have the
command of more food than they themselves can consume, are always willing
to exchange the surplus, or, what is the same thing, the price of it, for
gratifications of this other kind. What is over and above satisfying the
limited desire, is given for the amusement of those desires which cannot
be satisfied, but seem to be altogether endless. The poor, in order to
obtain food, exert themselves to gratify those fancies of the rich; and to
obtain it more certainly, they vie with one another in the cheapness and
perfection of their work. The number of workmen increases with the
increasing quantity of food, or with the growing improvement and
cultivation of the lands; and as the nature of their business admits of
the utmost subdivisions of labour, the quantity of materials which they
can work up, increases in a much greater proportion than their numbers.
Hence arises a demand for every sort of material which human invention can
employ, either usefully or ornamentally, in building, dress, equipage, or
household furniture; for the fossils and minerals contained in the bowels
of the earth, the precious metals, and the precious stones.
Food is, in this manner, not only the original source of rent, but every
other part of the produce of land which afterwards affords rent, derives
that part of its value from the improvement of the powers of labour in
producing food, by means of the improvement and cultivation of land.
Those other parts of the produce of land, however, which afterwards afford
rent, do not afford it always. Even in improved and cultivated countries,
the demand for them is not always such as to afford a greater price than
what is sufficient to pay the labour, and replace, together with its
ordinary profits, the stock which must be employed in bringing them to
market. Whether it is or is not such, depends upon different
circumstances.
Whether a coal mine, for example, can afford any rent, depends partly upon
its fertility, and partly upon its situation.
A mine of any kind may be said to be either fertile or barren, according
as the quantity of mineral which can be brought from it by a certain
quantity of labour, is greater or less than what can be brought by an
equal quantity from the greater part of other mines of the same kind.
Some coal mines, advantageously situated, cannot be wrought on account of
their barrenness. The produce does not pay the expense. They can afford
neither profit nor rent.
There are some, of which the produce is barely sufficient to pay the
labour, and replace, together with its ordinary profits, the stock
employed in working them. They afford some profit to the undertaker of the
work, but no rent to the landlord. They can be wrought advantageously by
nobody but the landlord, who, being himself the undertaker of the work,
gets the ordinary profit of the capital which he employs in it. Many coal
mines in Scotland are wrought in this manner, and can be wrought in no
other. The landlord will allow nobody else to work them without paying
some rent, and nobody can afford to pay any.
Other coal mines in the same country, sufficiently fertile, cannot be
wrought on account of their situation. A quantity of mineral, sufficient
to defray the expense of working, could be brought from the mine by the
ordinary, or even less than the ordinary quantity of labour: but in an
inland country, thinly inhabited, and without either good roads or
water-carriage, this quantity could not be sold.
Coals are a less agreeable fuel than wood: they are said too to be less
wholesome. The expense of coals, therefore, at the place where they are
consumed, must generally be somewhat less than that of wood.
The price of wood, again, varies with the state of agriculture, nearly in
the same manner, and exactly for the same reason, as the price of cattle.
In its rude beginnings, the greater part of every country is covered with
wood, which is then a mere incumbrance, of no value to the landlord, who
would gladly give it to any body for the cutting. As agriculture advances,
the woods are partly cleared by the progress of tillage, and partly go to
decay in consequence of the increased number of cattle. These, though they
do not increase in the same proportion as corn, which is altogether the
acquisition of human industry, yet multiply under the care and protection
of men, who store up in the season of plenty what may maintain them in
that of scarcity; who, through the whole year, furnish them with a greater
quantity of food than uncultivated nature provides for them; and who, by
destroying and extirpating their enemies, secure them in the free
enjoyment of all that she provides. Numerous herds of cattle, when allowed
to wander through the woods, though they do not destroy the old trees,
hinder any young ones from coming up; so that, in the course of a century
or two, the whole forest goes to ruin. The scarcity of wood then raises
its price. It affords a good rent; and the landlord sometimes finds that
he can scarce employ his best lands more advantageously than in growing
barren timber, of which the greatness of the profit often compensates the
lateness of the returns. This seems, in the present times, to be nearly
the state of things in several parts of Great Britain, where the profit of
planting is found to be equal to that of either corn or pasture. The
advantage which the landlord derives from planting can nowhere exceed, at
least for any considerable time, the rent which these could afford him;
and in an inland country, which is highly cultivated, it will frequently
not fall much short of this rent. Upon the sea-coast of a well-improved
country, indeed, if coals can conveniently be had for fuel, it may
sometimes be cheaper to bring barren timber for building from less
cultivated foreign countries than to raise it at home. In the new town of
Edinburgh, built within these few years, there is not, perhaps, a single
stick of Scotch timber.
Whatever may be the price of wood, if that of coals is such that the
expense of a coal fire is nearly equal to that of a wood one we may be
assured, that at that place, and in these circumstances, the price of
coals is as high as it can be. It seems to be so in some of the inland
parts of England, particularly in Oxfordshire, where it is usual, even in
the fires of the common people, to mix coals and wood together, and where
the difference in the expense of those two sorts of fuel cannot,
therefore, be very great. Coals, in the coal countries, are everywhere
much below this highest price. If they were not, they could not bear the
expense of a distant carriage, either by land or by water. A small
quantity only could be sold; and the coal masters and the coal proprietors
find it more for their interest to sell a great quantity at a price
somewhat above the lowest, than a small quantity at the highest. The most
fertile coal mine, too, regulates the price of coals at all the other
mines in its neighbourhood. Both the proprietor and the undertaker of the
work find, the one that he can get a greater rent, the other that he can
get a greater profit, by somewhat underselling all their neighbours. Their
neighbours are soon obliged to sell at the same price, though they cannot
so well afford it, and though it always diminishes, and sometimes takes
away altogether, both their rent and their profit. Some works are
abandoned altogether; others can afford no rent, and can be wrought only
by the proprietor.
The lowest price at which coals can be sold for any considerable time, is,
like that of all other commodities, the price which is barely sufficient
to replace, together with its ordinary profits, the stock which must be
employed in bringing them to market. At a coal mine for which the landlord
can get no rent, but, which he must either work himself or let it alone
altogether, the price of coals must generally be nearly about this price.
Rent, even where coals afford one, has generally a smaller share in their
price than in that of most other parts of the rude produce of land. The
rent of an estate above ground, commonly amounts to what is supposed to be
a third of the gross produce; and it is generally a rent certain and
independent of the occasional variations in the crop. In coal mines, a
fifth of the gross produce is a very great rent, a tenth the common rent;
and it is seldom a rent certain, but depends upon the occasional
variations in the produce. These are so great, that in a country where
thirty years purchase is considered as a moderate price for the property
of a landed estate, ten years purchase is regarded as a good price for
that of a coal mine.
The value of a coal mine to the proprietor, frequently depends as much
upon its situation as upon its fertility. That of a metallic mine depends
more upon its fertility, and less upon its situation. The coarse, and
still more the precious metals, when separated from the ore, are so
valuable, that they can generally bear the expense of a very long land,
and of the most distant sea carriage. Their market is not confined to the
countries in the neighbourhood of the mine, but extends to the whole
world. The copper of Japan makes an article of commerce in Europe; the
iron of Spain in that of Chili and Peru. The silver of Peru finds its way,
not only to Europe, but from Europe to China.
The price of coals in Westmoreland or Shropshire can have little effect on
their price at Newcastle; and their price in the Lionnois can have none at
all. The productions of such distant coal mines can never be brought into
competition with one another. But the productions of the most distant
metallic mines frequently may, and in fact commonly are.
The price, therefore, of the coarse, and still more that of the precious
metals, at the most fertile mines in the world, must necessarily more or
less affect their price at every other in it. The price of copper in Japan
must have some influence upon its price at the copper mines in Europe. The
price of silver in Peru, or the quantity either of labour or of other
goods which it will purchase there, must have some influence on its price,
not only at the silver mines of Europe, but at those of China. After the
discovery of the mines of Peru, the silver mines of Europe were, the
greater part of them, abandoned. The value of silver was so much reduced,
that their produce could no longer pay the expense of working them, or
replace, with a profit, the food, clothes, lodging, and other necessaries
which were consumed in that operation. This was the case, too, with the
mines of Cuba and St. Domingo, and even with the ancient mines of Peru,
after the discovery of those of Potosi. The price of every metal, at every
mine, therefore, being regulated in some measure by its price at the most
fertile mine in the world that is actually wrought, it can, at the greater
part of mines, do very little more than pay the expense of working, and
can seldom afford a very high rent to the landlord. Rent accordingly,
seems at the greater part of mines to have but a small share in the price
of the coarse, and a still smaller in that of the precious metals. Labour
and profit make up the greater part of both.
A sixth part of the gross produce may be reckoned the average rent of the
tin mines of Cornwall, the most fertile that are known in the world, as we
are told by the Rev. Mr Borlace, vice-warden of the stannaries. Some, he
says, afford more, and some do not afford so much. A sixth part of the
gross produce is the rent, too, of several very fertile lead mines in
Scotland.
In the silver mines of Peru, we are told by Frezier and Ulloa, the
proprietor frequently exacts no other acknowledgment from the undertaker
of the mine, but that he will grind the ore at his mill, paying him the
ordinary multure or price of grinding. Till 1736, indeed, the tax of the
king of Spain amounted to one fifth of the standard silver, which till
then might be considered as the real rent of the greater part of the
silver mines of Peru, the richest which have been known in the world. If
there had been no tax, this fifth would naturally have belonged to the
landlord, and many mines might have been wrought which could not then be
wrought, because they could not afford this tax. The tax of the duke of
Cornwall upon tin is supposed to amount to more than five per cent. or one
twentieth part of the value; and whatever may be his proportion, it would
naturally, too, belong to the proprietor of the mine, if tin was duty
free. But if you add one twentieth to one sixth, you will find that the
whole average rent of the tin mines of Cornwall, was to the whole average
rent of the silver mines of Peru, as thirteen to twelve. But the silver
mines of Peru are not now able to pay even this low rent; and the tax upon
silver was, in 1736, reduced from one fifth to one tenth. Even this tax
upon silver, too, gives more temptation to smuggling than the tax of one
twentieth upon tin; and smuggling must be much easier in the precious than
in the bulky commodity. The tax of the king of Spain, accordingly, is said
to be very ill paid, and that of the duke of Cornwall very well. Rent,
therefore, it is probable, makes a greater part of the price of tin at the
most fertile tin mines than it does of silver at the most fertile silver
mines in the world. After replacing the stock employed in working those
different mines, together with its ordinary profits, the residue which
remains to the proprietor is greater, it seems, in the coarse, than in the
precious metal.
Neither are the profits of the undertakers of silver mines commonly very
great in Peru. The same most respectable and well-informed authors
acquaint us, that when any person undertakes to work a new mine in Peru,
he is universally looked upon as a man destined to bankruptcy and ruin,
and is upon that account shunned and avoided by every body. Mining, it
seems, is considered there in the same light as here, as a lottery, in
which the prizes do not compensate the blanks, though the greatness of
some tempts many adventurers to throw away their fortunes in such
unprosperous projects.
As the sovereign, however, derives a considerable part of his revenue from
the produce of silver mines, the law in Peru gives every possible
encouragement to the discovery and working of new ones. Whoever discovers
a new mine, is entitled to measure off two hundred and forty-six feet in
length, according to what he supposes to be the direction of the vein, and
half as much in breadth. He becomes proprietor of this portion of the
mine, and can work it without paving any acknowledgment to the landlord.
The interest of the duke of Cornwall has given occasion to a regulation
nearly of the same kind in that ancient dutchy. In waste and uninclosed
lands, any person who discovers a tin mine may mark out its limits to a
certain extent, which is called bounding a mine. The bounder becomes the
real proprietor of the mine, and may either work it himself, or give it in
lease to another, without the consent of the owner of the land, to whom,
however, a very small acknowledgment must be paid upon working it. In both
regulations, the sacred rights of private property are sacrificed to the
supposed interests of public revenue.
The same encouragement is given in Peru to the discovery and working of
new gold mines; and in gold the king’s tax amounts only to a twentieth
part of the standard rental. It was once a fifth, and afterwards a tenth,
as in silver; but it was found that the work could not bear even the
lowest of these two taxes. If it is rare, however, say the same authors,
Frezier and Ulloa, to find a person who has made his fortune by a silver,
it is still much rarer to find one who has done so by a gold mine. This
twentieth part seems to be the whole rent which is paid by the greater
part of the gold mines of Chili and Peru. Gold, too, is much more liable
to be smuggled than even silver; not only on account of the superior value
of the metal in proportion to its bulk, but on account of the peculiar way
in which nature produces it. Silver is very seldom found virgin, but, like
most other metals, is generally mineralized with some other body, from
which it is impossible to separate it in such quantities as will pay for
the expense, but by a very laborious and tedious operation, which cannot
well be carried on but in work-houses erected for the purpose, and,
therefore, exposed to the inspection of the king’s officers. Gold, on the
contrary, is almost always found virgin. It is sometimes found in pieces
of some bulk; and, even when mixed, in small and almost insensible
particles, with sand, earth, and other extraneous bodies, it can be
separated from them by a very short and simple operation, which can be
carried on in any private house by any body who is possessed of a small
quantity of mercury. If the king’s tax, therefore, is but ill paid upon
silver, it is likely to be much worse paid upon gold; and rent must make a
much smaller part of the price of gold than that of silver.
The lowest price at which the precious metals can be sold, or the smallest
quantity of other goods for which they can be exchanged, during any
considerable time, is regulated by the same principles which fix the
lowest ordinary price of all other goods. The stock which must commonly be
employed, the food, clothes, and lodging, which must commonly be consumed
in bringing them from the mine to the market, determine it. It must at
least be sufficient to replace that stock, with the ordinary profits.
Their highest price, however, seems not to be necessarily determined by
any thing but the actual scarcity or plenty of these metals themselves. It
is not determined by that of any other commodity, in the same manner as
the price of coals is by that of wood, beyond which no scarcity can ever
raise it. Increase the scarcity of gold to a certain degree, and the
smallest bit of it may become more precious than a diamond, and exchange
for a greater quantity of other goods.
The demand for those metals arises partly from their utility, and partly
from their beauty. If you except iron, they are more useful than, perhaps,
any other metal. As they are less liable to rust and impurity, they can
more easily be kept clean; and the utensils, either of the table or the
kitchen, are often, upon that account, more agreeable when made of them. A
silver boiler is more cleanly than a lead, copper, or tin one; and the
same quality would render a gold boiler still better than a silver one.
Their principal merit, however, arises from their beauty, which renders
them peculiarly fit for the ornaments of dress and furniture. No paint or
dye can give so splendid a colour as gilding. The merit of their beauty is
greatly enhanced by their scarcity. With the greater part of rich people,
the chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches; which, in
their eye, is never so complete as when they appear to possess those
decisive marks of opulence which nobody can possess but themselves. In
their eyes, the merit of an object, which is in any degree either useful
or beautiful, is greatly enhanced by its scarcity, or by the great labour
which it requires to collect any considerable quantity of it; a labour
which nobody can afford to pay but themselves. Such objects they are
willing to purchase at a higher price than things much more beautiful and
useful, but more common. These qualities of utility, beauty, and scarcity,
are the original foundation of the high price of those metals, or of the
great quantity of other goods for which they can everywhere be exchanged.
This value was antecedent to, and independent of their being employed as
coin, and was the quality which fitted them for that employment. That
employment, however, by occasioning a new demand, and by diminishing the
quantity which could be employed in any other way, may have afterwards
contributed to keep up or increase their value.
The demand for the precious stones arises altogether from their beauty.
They are of no use but as ornaments; and the merit of their beauty is
greatly enhanced by their scarcity, or by the difficulty and expense of
getting them from the mine. Wages and profit accordingly make up, upon
most occasions, almost the whole of the high price. Rent comes in but for
a very small share, frequently for no share; and the most fertile mines
only afford any considerable rent. When Tavernier, a jeweller, visited the
diamond mines of Golconda and Visiapour, he was informed that the
sovereign of the country, for whose benefit they were wrought, had ordered
all of them to be shut up except those which yielded the largest and
finest stones. The other, it seems, were to the proprietor not worth the
working.
As the prices, both of the precious metals and of the precious stones, is
regulated all over the world by their price at the most fertile mine in
it, the rent which a mine of either can afford to its proprietor is in
proportion, not to its absolute, but to what may be called its relative
fertility, or to its superiority over other mines of the same kind. If new
mines were discovered, as much superior to those of Potosi, as they were
superior to those of Europe, the value of silver might be so much degraded
as to render even the mines of Potosi not worth the working. Before the
discovery of the Spanish West Indies, the most fertile mines in Europe may
have afforded as great a rent to their proprietors as the richest mines in
Peru do at present. Though the quantity of silver was much less, it might
have exchanged for an equal quantity of other goods, and the proprietor’s
share might have enabled him to purchase or command an equal quantity
either of labour or of commodities.
The value, both of the produce and of the rent, the real revenue which
they afforded, both to the public and to the proprietor, might have been
the same.
The most abundant mines, either of the precious metals, or of the precious
stones, could add little to the wealth of the world. A produce, of which
the value is principally derived from its scarcity, is necessarily
degraded by its abundance. A service of plate, and the other frivolous
ornaments of dress and furniture, could be purchased for a smaller
quantity of commodities; and in this would consist the sole advantage
which the world could derive from that abundance.
It is otherwise in estates above ground. The value, both of their produce
and of their rent, is in proportion to their absolute, and not to their
relative fertility. The land which produces a certain quantity of food,
clothes, and lodging, can always feed, clothe, and lodge, a certain number
of people; and whatever may be the proportion of the landlord, it will
always give him a proportionable command of the labour of those people,
and of the commodities with which that labour can supply him. The value of
the most barren land is not diminished by the neighbourhood of the most
fertile. On the contrary, it is generally increased by it. The great
number of people maintained by the fertile lands afford a market to many
parts of the produce of the barren, which they could never have found
among those whom their own produce could maintain.
Whatever increases the fertility of land in producing food, increases not
only the value of the lands upon which the improvement is bestowed, but
contributes likewise to increase that of many other lands, by creating a
new demand for their produce. That abundance of food, of which, in
consequence of the improvement of land, many people have the disposal
beyond what they themselves can consume, is the great cause of the demand,
both for the precious metals and the precious stones, as well as for every
other conveniency and ornament of dress, lodging, household furniture, and
equipage. Food not only constitutes the principal part of the riches of
the world, but it is the abundance of food which gives the principal part
of their value to many other sorts of riches. The poor inhabitants of Cuba
and St. Domingo, when they were first discovered by the Spaniards, used to
wear little bits of gold as ornaments in their hair and other parts of
their dress. They seemed to value them as we would do any little pebbles
of somewhat more than ordinary beauty, and to consider them as just worth
the picking up, but not worth the refusing to any body who asked them,
They gave them to their new guests at the first request, without seeming
to think that they had made them any very valuable present. They were
astonished to observe the rage of the Spaniards to obtain them; and had no
notion that there could anywhere be a country in which many people had the
disposal of so great a superfluity of food; so scanty always among
themselves, that, for a very small quantity of those glittering baubles,
they would willingly give as much as might maintain a whole family for
many years. Could they have been made to understand this, the passion of
the Spaniards would not have surprised them.
