[25] Vol. iii. p. 355.

[26] In a former part of this work, I have noticed the
difference between rent, properly so called, and the
remuneration paid to the landlord under that name, for the
advantages which the expenditure of his capital has
procured to his tenant; but I did not perhaps sufficiently
distinguish the difference which would arise from the
different modes in which this capital might be applied. As
a part of this capital, when once expended in the
improvement of a farm, is inseparably amalgamated with the
land, and tends to increase its productive powers, the
remuneration paid to the landlord for its use is strictly
of the nature of rent, and is subject to all the laws of
rent. Whether the improvement be made at the expense of
the landlord or the tenant, it will not be undertaken in
the first instance, unless there is a strong probability
that the return will at least be equal to the profit that
can be made by the disposition of any other equal capital;
but when once made, the return obtained will ever after be
wholly of the nature of rent, and will be subject to all
the variations of rent. Some of these expenses however,
only give advantages to the land for a limited period, and
do not add permanently to its productive powers: being
bestowed on buildings, and other perishable improvements,
they require to be constantly renewed, and therefore do
not obtain for the landlord any permanent addition to his
real rent.

[27] Adam Smith says, "that the difference between the
real and the nominal price of commodities and labour, is
not a matter of mere speculation, but may sometimes be of
considerable use in practice." I agree with him; but the
real price of labour and commodities, is no more to be
ascertained by their price in goods, Adam Smith's real
measure, than by their price in gold and silver, his
nominal measure. The labourer is only paid a really high
price for his labour, when his wages will purchase the
produce of a great deal of labour.

[28] In vol. i. p. 108, M. Say infers, that silver is now
of the same value, as in the reign of Louis XIV. "because
the same quantity of silver will buy the same quantity of
corn."

[29] "The first man who knew how to soften metals by fire,
is not the creator of the value which that process adds to
the melted metal. That value is the result of the physical
action of