rer of hardware, of jewellery, and of many other commodities,
as well as those whose capitals uniformly consisted of money, would be
subject to the whole fall in the rate of profits, without any
compensation whatever.

We should also expect that, however the rate of the profits of stock
might diminish in consequence of the accumulation of capital on the
land, and the rise of wages, yet the aggregate amount of profits would
increase. Thus supposing that, with repeated accumulations of
100,000_l._, the rate of profit should fall from 20 to 19, to 18, to 17
per cent., a constantly diminishing rate, we should expect that the
whole amount of profits received by those successive owners of capital
would be always progressive; that it would be greater when the capital
was 200,000_l._, than when 100,000_l._; still greater when 300,000_l._;
and so on, increasing, though at a diminishing rate, with every increase
of capital. This progression however is only true for a certain time:
thus 19 per cent. on 200,000_l._ is more than 20 on 100,000_l._; again
18 per cent. on 300,000_l._ is more than 19 per cent. on 200,000_l._;
but after capital has accumulated to a large amount, and profits have
fallen, the further accumulation diminishes the aggregate of profits.
Thus suppose the accumulation should be 1,000,000_l._, and the profits 7
per cent. the whole amount of profits will be 70,000_l._; now if an
addition of 100,000_l._ capital be made to the million, and profits
should fall to 6 per cent., 66,000_l._ or a diminution of 4000_l._ will
be received by the owners of stock, although the whole amount of stock
will be increased from 1,000,000_l._ to 1,100,000_l._

There can, however, be no accumulation of capital, so long as stock
yields any profit at all, without its yielding not only an increase of
produce, but an increase of value. By employing 100,000_l._ additional
capital, no part of the former capital will be rendered less productive.
The produce of the land and labour of the country must increase, and its
value will be raised, not only by the value of the addition which is
made to the former quantity of productions, but by the new value which
is given to the whole produce of the land, by the increased difficulty
of producing the last portion of it, which new value always goes to
rent. When the accumulation of capital, however, becomes very great,
notwithstanding this increased value, it will be so distributed that a
less value th