[157-6] Malthus, Principles, 231 ff. If the laboring class were to become satisfied with living on potatoes instead of meat and bread as hitherto, rents would immediately and greatly fall, since the necessities of the people might then be obtained from a much smaller superficies. But after a time, the consequent increase in population might lead to a much higher rent than before; since a great deal of land too unfertile for the cultivation of corn might be sown with potatoes, and thus the limits of cultivation be reached much later.
[157-7] In France, between 1797 and 1847, the average price of wheat did not rise at all. Hipp. Passy mentions pieces of land which produced scarcely 12 hectolitres of wheat, but which now produce 20—an increased yield of 170 francs, attended by an increase in the cost of only 75 francs. (Journal des Economistes, 15 Oct., 1848.) Moreover, it may be that a not unimportant part of modern rises in the price of corn may be accounted for by the better quality of the corn caused by higher farming. (Inama Sternbeg, Gesch. der Preise, 10 seq.) Such facts, readily explainable by Ricardo's theory, remove the objection of Carey, Banfield and others, that the condition of the classes who own no land has, since the middle ages, unquestionably improved. Political Economy would be simply a theory of human degradation and impoverishment, if the law of rent was not counteracted by opposing causes. (Rœsler, Grundsätze, 210.) According to Berens, Krit. Dogmengeschichte, 213, the actual highness of rent is to be accounted for by the antagonism between the "soil-law (Bodengesetz) of the limited power of vegetation," and the "progress of civilization" (but surely only to the extent that the latter improves the art of agriculture). Thus, too, John Stuart Mill, Principles, I, ch. 12; II, ch. 11, 15 seq.; III, ch. 4 seq.; IV, ch. 2 ff.
[157-8] Thus, for instance, drainage works which, where properly directed, have paid an interest of from 25 to 70 per cent. per annum in England and Belgium on the capital invested.
HISTORY OF RENT.—IN PERIODS OF DECLINE.
If a nation's economy be declining, in consequence of war for instance, the disastrous influence hereof on rent may be retarded by a still greater fall in wages or in the profit on capital. But it can be hardly retarded beyond a certain point.[158-1] As a rule, the decline of rents begins to be felt by the least fertile and least advantageously situated land.[158-2] [158-3]
[158-1] "The falling of rents an infallible sign of the decay of wealth." (Locke.) In England, in 1450, land was bought at "14 years' purchase;" i. e., with a capital = 14 times the yearly rent paid, in 1470, at only "10 years' purchase." (Eden, State of the Poor, III, App., I, XXXV.) This was, doubtless, a consequence of the civil war raging in the meantime. The American war (1775-82) depressed the price of land in England to "23¼ years' purchase," whereas it had previously stood at 32. (A. Young.) The rent of land, in many places in France, declined from 10,000 to 2,000 livres, on account of the many wars during Louis XIV.'s reign. (Madame de Sévigné's Lettres, 25 Dec, 1689.) Even in 1677, it was only one-half of its former amount (King, Life of Locke, I, 129.) The whole Bekes county (comitat) in Hungary was sold for 150,000 florins under Charles VI.; after the unfortunate war with France. (Mailath, Oesterreich, Gesch., IV, 523.) Compare Cantillon, Nature du Commerce, 248. In Cologne, a new house was sold in the spring of 1848 for 1,000 thalers, the site of which alone had cost 3,000 thalers; and there are six building lots which formerly cost over 3,000 thalers, now valued at only 100 thalers. (von Reden, Statist. Zeitschr., 1848, 366.) On the other hand, Napoleon's war very much enhanced English rents (Porter, Progress of the Nation, II, 1, 150 ff.), because it affected England's national husbandry principally by hindering the importation of the means of subsistence. (Passy, Journal des Economistes, X, 354.)
[158-2] Thus the price of lands, in Mecklenburg, between 1817 and 1827, fell 30 to 40 per cent. in the least fertile quarters; in the better, from 15 to 20 per cent. (von Thünen, in Jacob, Tracts relating to the Corn Trade, 40, 187.) Per contra, see Hundeshagen Landwirthsch. Gewerbelehre, 1839, 64 seq., and Carey, Principles, I, 354.
[158-3] The average rent in England was, in 1815, 17s. 3d. In the counties, it was highest in Middlesex, 38s. 9d.; in Rutland, 38s. 2d.; Leicester, 27s. 3d.; lowest in Westmoreland, 9s. 1d. In Wales, the average was 7s. 10d.; highest in Anglesea, 19s.; lowest in Merioneth, 4s. 8d. In Scotland the average was 5s. 1½d.; highest, Midlothian, 24s. 6½d.; lowest, Highland Caithness, Cromarthy, Inverness and Rosse, from 1s. 1d. to 1s. 5d.; Orkneys, 8½d.; Sutherland, 6d.; Shetlands, 3d. In Ireland, the average was 12s. 9d.; highest in Dublin, 20s. 1½d.; lowest, Donegal, 6s. (McCulloch, Stat., I, 544 ff.; Yearbook of general Information, 1843, 193.) In France, Chaptal, De l'Industrie Fr., 1819, I, 209 ff., estimates the average yield per hectare at 28 francs; in the Department of the Seine, 216; Nord, 69.56; Lower Seine, 67.85; in the upper Alps, 6.2; in the lower Alps, 5.99: in the Landes, 6.25. While in the Landes, only 20 francs a hectare are frequently paid, the purchase price in the neighboring Medoc is sometimes 25,000 francs. (Journal des Economistes, Jan. 15, 1851.) In Belgium, the average price of agricultural land is 52.46; in East Flanders, 53.19; in Namur, 29.24. (Heuschling, Statistique, 77.)