It will be seen then, that whatever rise may take place in the price of corn, in consequence of the necessity of employing more labour and capital to obtain a given additional quantity of produce, such rise will always be equalled in value by the additional rent, or additional labour employed; so that whether corn sells for 4l., 4l. 10s., or 5l. 2s. 10d., the farmer will obtain for that which remains to him, after paying rent, the same real value. Thus we see, that whether the produce belonging to the farmer be 180, 170, 160, or 150 quarters, he always obtains the same sum of 720l. for it; the price increasing in an inverse proportion to the quantity.
Rent then, it appears, always falls on the consumer, and never on the farmer; for if the produce of his farm should uniformly be 180 quarters, with the rise of price, he would retain the value of a less quantity for himself, and give the value of a larger quantity to his landlord; but the deduction would be such as to leave him always the same sum of 720l.
It will be seen too that, in all cases, the same sum of 720l. must be divided between wages and profits. If the value of the raw produce from the land exceed this value, it belongs to rent, whatever may be its amount. If there be no excess, there will be no rent. Whether wages or profits rise or fall, it is this sum of 720l. from which they must both be provided. On the one hand, profits can never rise so high as to absorb so much of this 720l., that enough will not be left to furnish the labourers with absolute necessaries; on the other hand, wages can never rise so high as to leave no portion of this sum for profits.
Thus in every case, agricultural, as well as manufacturing profits are lowered by a rise in the price of raw produce, if it be accompanied by a rise of wages.[11] If the farmer gets no additional value for the corn which remains to him after paying rent, if the manufacturer gets no additional value for the goods which he manufactures, and if both are obliged to pay a greater value in wages, can any point be more clearly established than that profits must fall, with a rise of wages?
The farmer then, although he pays no part of his landlord's rent, that being always regulated by the price of produce, and invariably falling on the consumers, has however a very decided interest in keeping rent low, or rather in keeping the natural price of produce low. As a consumer of raw produce, and of those things into which raw produce enters as a component part, he will in common with all other consumers, be interested in keeping the price low. But he is most materially concerned with the high price of corn as it affects wages. With every rise in the price of corn, he will have to pay out of an equal and unvarying sum of 720l., an additional sum for wages to the ten men whom he is supposed constantly to employ. We have seen in treating on wages, that they invariably rise with the rise in the price of raw produce. On a basis assumed for the purpose of calculation, page 106, it will be seen that if when wheat is at 4l. per quarter, wages should be 24l. per annum.
| £ s. d. | £ s. d. | ||
| When Wheat is at | 4 4 8 | wages would be | 24 14 0 |
| 4 10 0 | 25 10 0 | ||
| 4 16 0 | 26 8 0 | ||
| 5 2 10 | 27 8 6 |
Now, of the unvarying fund of 720l. to be distributed between labourers and farmers,
| £ s. d. | £ s. | £ s. d. | |||
| When the price of Wheat at | 4 0 0 | the labourer will receive | 240 0 | the former will receive | 480 0 0 |
| 4 4 8 | 247 0 | 473 0 0 | |||
| 4 10 8 | 255 0 | 465 0 0 | |||
| 4 16 8 | 264 0 | 456 0 0 | |||
| 5 2 8 | 274 5 | 445 15 [12] |
And supposing that the original capital of the farmer was 3000l., the profits of his stock being in the first instance 480l., would be at the rate of 16 per cent. When his profits fell to 473l., they would be at the rate of 15.7 per cent.
| 465 | 15.5 |
| 456 | 15.2 |
| 445 | 14.8 |