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Manual of Political Economy.
BOOK II. CH. III. These conclusions will require further consideration when we come to speak of value.
and not the farmers, will derive a special advantage, because, in one sense, the farmers, conjointly with every other class in the community, will be benefited, since, if the expenses of cultivation are diminished, the cost of production is diminished, and, therefore, food will be cheapened. The effect which may be thus produced by cheapening food, at once suggests questions of the greatest importance. These, however, we must reserve until we treat of exchange, in the next division of the subject. We will here take the opportunity of remarking that we have as yet said nothing about the value of those shares into which any wealth which is produced may be distributed. All such questions with regard to value cannot be appropriately considered until we treat of exchange. When, therefore, in this chapter we have alluded to particular circumstances which will increase rents, we attribute the increase not to any rise in the price of agricultural produce, but we refer the increased rent entirely to a different distribution of the produce of the land, more advantageous to the landlord. Thus the distribution will be changed in the following manner, when the use of improved implements diminishes the expense of cultivation: the profits of the farmer and the wages of his labourers will remain as they were before; but the landlord will receive, in addition to the rent which is previously paid to him, all that is saved in the expense of cultivation. It is very important to bear this in mind, because a confusion may arise very embarrassing to the reader; for in popular phraseology rents are often said to rise without any alteration in the relative amounts received by those classes amongst whom the produce of the land may be distributed. It, for example, a landlord's rent is a certain portion of the produce of the land, then his rent is said to rise if anything should occur to increase the value of this produce. Before the Tithe Commutation Act was passed, the tithe was a rent-charge amounting to one-tenth of the produce. If it had not been for this commutation, tithes for many years would have been increased by two distinct causes; for, in the first place, since more produce was obtained from the land, the tithe would be increased in quantity; and, secondly, even if the tithe were not increased in quantity,
