encounter. The manufacturer enjoying none of these facilities might
indeed be driven altogether from the market, if the supply afforded by
these favoured workmen were equal to all the wants of the community; but
if he continued the trade, it would be only on condition that he should
derive from it the usual and general rate of profits on stock; and that
could only happen when his commodity sold for a price proportioned to
the quantity of labour bestowed on its production.[6]

It is true, that on the best land, the same produce would still be
obtained with the same labour as before, but its value would be enhanced
in consequence of the diminished returns obtained by those who employed
fresh labour and stock on the less fertile land. Notwithstanding then,
that the advantages of fertile over inferior lands are in no case lost,
but only transferred from the cultivator, or consumer, to the landlord,
yet since more labour is required on the inferior lands, and since it is
from such land only that we are enabled to furnish ourselves with the
additional supply of raw produce, the comparative value of that produce
will continue permanently above its former level, and make it exchange
for more hats, cloth, shoes, &c. &c. in the production of which no such
additional quantity of labour is required.

The reason then, why raw produce rises in comparative value, is because
more labour is employed in the production of the last portion obtained,
and not because a rent is paid to the landlord. The value of corn is
regulated by the quantity of labour bestowed on its production on that
quality of land, or with that portion of capital, which pays no rent.
Corn is not high because a rent is paid, but a rent is paid because corn
is high; and it has been justly observed, that no reduction would take
place in the price of corn, although landlords should forego the whole
of their rent. Such a measure would only enable some farmers to live
like gentlemen, but would not diminish the quantity of labour necessary
to raise raw produce on the least productive land in cultivation.

Nothing is more common than to hear of the advantages which the land
possesses over every other source of useful produce, on account of the
surplus which it yields in the form of rent. Yet when land is most
abundant, when most productive, and most fertile, it yields no rent; and
it is only when its powers decay, and less is yielded in return for
labour, that a share of t