inds of those early
economists who made the assertion or not, it is what their argument
proves. The _payment_ of rent by tenants to landlords has no effect on
the market value of the produce. "Food would not become cheaper," says
Professor Fawcett, "even if land were made rent free." There would be
the same need of food stuffs as before, and the tillage of lands would
be pushed to the present margin, where the yield is smallest. The
cost, in labor and capital, of that marginal part of the supply of
food which has come from these poorest lands would continue to be what
it has been heretofore. The farmers would, of course, get from the
good lands the same surplus that they get at present; but the fact
that land had been made rent free would enable them to keep it. This
surplus is, of course, rent, and transferring it from landlords to
tenants does not affect prices. So much of the doctrine formerly
current is true; and it would have forestalled much confused thought
as well as much controversy if the statement concerning rent and price
had made it clear that any rent in its original form is an element in
the supply of produce, and the existence of it helps to determine
prices, while the payments made by tenants to landlords do not affect
them. If these payments should cease and the tenants should retain the
rent, prices would continue to be what they now are.[4]

[4] The claim that rent is not an element in price making
might be made in the case of artificial instruments of
production as reasonably as it can be made in the case of
land. If it means that the _existence_ of the rent has no
effect on price, it is wholly incorrect in both cases. The
statement may be so changed as to tell what is true
concerning the rent of land, and it will then also tell the
truth about the product of the artificial instruments, which
is interest in its original form. These statements may be
made in parallel columns, and one will be as true as the
other and no truer.

A needed part of the supply A needed part of the supply
of wheat is grown on marginal of woolen cloth is woven on
land. marginal looms.

The price of the wheat must The price of the cloth must
pay for the labor and capital pay for the labor and capital
used on this land. that, in the woolen
manufacture, are combine