ore dear by becoming more scarce, because population
always diminishes at the same time that food diminishes,
and consequently the quantity of these products
_demanded_, diminishes at the same time as the quantity
supplied. Besides it is not observed that corn is more
dear in those places where there is plenty of uncultivated
land, than in completely cultivated countries. England and
France were much more imperfectly cultivated in the middle
ages than they are now; they produced much less raw
produce: nevertheless from all that we can judge by a
comparison with the value of other things, corn was not
sold at a dearer price. If the produce was less, so was
the population; the weakness of the demand compensated the
feebleness of the supply." vol. ii. 338. M. Say being
impressed with the opinion that the price of commodities
is regulated by the price of labour, and justly supposing
that charitable institutions of all sorts tend to increase
the population beyond what it otherwise would be, and
therefore to lower wages, says, "I suspect that the
cheapness of the goods, which come from England is partly
caused by the numerous charitable institutions which exist
in that country." vol. ii. 277. This is a consistent
opinion in one who maintains that wages regulate price.

[7] "In agriculture too," says Adam Smith, "nature labours
along with man; and though her labour costs no expense,
its produce has its value, as well as that of the most
expensive workman." The labour of nature is paid, not
because she does much, but because she does little. In
proportion as she becomes niggardly in her gifts, she
exacts a greater price for her work. Where she is
munificently beneficent, she always works gratis. "The
labouring cattle employed in agriculture, not only
occasion, like the workmen in manufactures, the
reproduction of a value equal to their own consumption, or
to the capital which employs them, together with its
owner's profits, but of a much greater value. Over and
above the capital of the farmer and all its profits, they
regularly occasion the reproduction of the rent of the
landlord. This rent may be considered as the produce of
those powers of nature, the use of which the landlord
lends to the farmer. It is greater or smaller according to
the supposed extent of those powers, or in other words,
according to the supposed natural or improved f