Outlines of a System of Political Economy; Written with a View to Prove to Government and the Country, That the Cause of the Present Agricultural Distress Is Entirely Artificial, and to Suggest a Plan for the Management of the Currency Together with the F (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1823. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XV., ' "' Rent. The rent of land consists of that part of its produce which is received by the landlord, after paying the expence of labour, materials, and profits of capital employed in its cultivation. The produce of the soil, as we have shewn, creates population, which multiplies with the increase of it. As the value of labour becomes less, the surplus produce of the soil becomes greater. Rent from mines is also their surplus produce, after paying for the labour, materials, and profits of capital employed in working them The principles, however, which govern the demand, by which rent from mines is created, are different from those which regulate the rent of land. There is always a given demand for every commodity of necessary, luxury, or convenience, in use. This demand is regulated by its price. If a carriage could be had for six-pence, beggars would ride. It is only the high price of the luxury which confines it to comparatively so few. Beneath the cost of its production in labour materials, profits of capital, &c. no commodity can, for any length of time, fall. If it could not be sold for what it cost, it would cease to be produced altogether. But if, on the contrary, the supply of any commodity is unlimited, except by the cost of production, as salt for in stance from sea water, the price of it never can exceed that cost upon the average, as an increase of supply would always follow an increase of demapd. Should, however, the supply of any commodity be limited, and there is a demand for much more than can, by the application of labour and capital, be produced; this demand must be brought to an equality with the supply by an increase of price, which will reduce either the inclination, or confine the power of consuming it to a less number of p...