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rents would rise much beyond what they are
at present.

The land which is fit for potatoes, is fit for
almost every other useful vegetable. If they
occupied the same proportion of cultivated
land which corn does at present, they would
regulate, in the same manner, the rent of the
greater part of other cultivated land.

I

am,

way in which they require them, and are will-
ing to pay for them. In the one state, there
fore, there is always a superabundance of those
materials, which are frequently, upon that ac-
In the other,
count, of little or no value.
there is often a scarcity, which necessarily
augments their value.

In the one state, a

great part of them is thrown away as useless;
and the price of what is used is considered as
equal only to the labour and expense of fit-
ting it for use, and can, therefore, afford no
In the other, they are
rent to the landlord.
all made use of, and there is frequently a de-
mand for more than can be had. Somebody
is always willing to give more for every part
of them, than what is sufficient to pay the ex-
pense of bringing them to market.
price, therefore, can always afford some rent
to the landlord.

Their

If there

In some parts of Lancashire, it is pretended, I have been told, that bread of oatmeal is a heartier food for labouring people than wheaten bread, and I have frequently heard the same doctrine held in Scotland. however, somewhat doubtful of the truth of it. The common people in Scotland, who are fed with oatmeal, are in general neither so strong nor so handsome as the same rank of people in England, who are fed with wheaten bread. They neither work so well, nor look The skins of the larger animals were the so well; and as there is not the same difference between the people of fashion in the two original materials of clothing. Among nacountries, experience would seem to shew, tions of hunters and shepherds, therefore, that the food of the common people in Scot- whose food consists chiefly in the flesh of those land is not so suitable to the human constitu- animals, every man, by providing himself with tion as that of their neighbours of the same food, provides himself with the materials of rank in England. But it seems to be other- more clothing than he can wear. wise with potatoes. The chairmen, porters, was no foreign commerce, the greater part of and coal-heavers in London, and those un- them would be thrown away as things of no This was probably the case among fortunate women who live by prostitution, the value. strongest men and the most beautiful women the hunting nations of North America, before perhaps in the British dominions, are said to their country was discovered by the Europeans, be, the greater part of them, from the lowest with whom they now exchange their surplus rank of people in Ireland, who are generally peltry, for blankets, fire-arms, and brandy, fed with this root. No food can afford a more which gives it some value. In the present decisive proof of its nourishing quality, or of commercial state of the known world, the its being peculiarly suitable to the health of most barbarous nations, I believe, among the human constitution. whom land property is established, have some It is difficult to preserve potatoes through foreign commerce of this kind, and find among the year, and impossible to store them like their wealthier neighbours such a demand for corn, for two or three years together. The all the materials of clothing, which their land fear of not being able to sell them before they produces, and which can neither be wrought rot, discourages their cultivation, and is, per-up nor consumed at home, as raises their price haps, the chief obstacle to their ever becoming above what it costs to send them to those in any great country, like bread, the principal wealthier neighbours. It affords, therefore, When the greater vegetable food of all the different ranks of the some rent to the landlord. people. part of the Highland cattle were consumed on their own hills, the exportation of their hides made the most considerable article of PART II.—Of the Produce of Land, which the commerce of that country, and what they sometimes does, and sometimes does not, af- were exchanged for afforded some addition to the rent of the Highland estates. of England, which in old times, could neither HUMAN food seems to be the only produce of be consumed nor wrought up at home, found land, which always and necessarily affords a market in the then wealthier and more insome rent to the landlord. Other sorts of dustrious country of Flanders, and its price produce sometimes may, and sometimes may afforded something to the rent of the land

ford Rent.

not, according to different circumstances. which produced it.
After food, clothing and lodging are the

two great wants of mankind.

The wool

In countries not better

cultivated than England was then, or than the Highlands of Scotland are now, and which Land, in its original rude state, can afford had no foreign commerce, the materials of the materials of clothing and lodging to a clothing would evidently be so superabundant, much greater number of people than it can that a great part of them would be thrown feed. In its improved state, it can sometimes away as useless, and no part could afford any feed a greater number of people than it can rent to the landlord. supply with those materials; at least in the The materials of lodging

cannot always be

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transported to so great a distance as those of the other wants and fancies of mankind. clothing, and do not so readily become an ob- Clothing and lodging, household furniture, ject of foreign commerce. When they are and what is called equipage, are the principal superabundant in the country which produces objects of the greater part of those wants and them, it frequently happens, even in the pre-fancies. The rich man consumes no more sent commercial state of the world, that they food than his poor neighbour. In quality it are of no value to the landlord. A good stone may be very different, and to select and prequarry in the neighbourhood of London would pare it may require more labour and art; afford a considerable rent. In many parts of but in quantity it is very nearly the same. Scotland and Wales it affords none. Barren But compare the spacious palace and great umber for building is of great value in a po- wardrobe of the one, with the hovel and the pulous and well-cultivated country, and the few rags of the other, and you will be sensible land which produces it affords a considerable that the difference between their clothing, rent. But in many parts of North America, lodging, and household furniture, is almost as the landlord would be much obliged to any great in quantity as it is in quality. The debody who would carry away the greater part sire of food is limited in every man by the of his large trees. In some parts of the High- narrow capacity of the human stomach; but lands of Scotland, the bark is the only part of the desire of the conveniencies and ornaments the wood which, for want of roads and water- of building, dress, equipage, and household carriage, can be sent to market; the timber is furniture, seems to have no limit or certain left to rot upon the ground. When the ma- boundary. Those, therefore, who have the terials of lodging are so superabundant, the cominand of more food than they themselves part made use of is worth only the labour and can consume, are always willing to exchange expense of fitting it for that use. It affords the surplus, or, what is the same thing, the no rent to the landlord, who generally grants price of it, for gratifications of this other kind. the use of it to whoever takes the trouble of What is over and above satisfying the limited asking it. The demand of wealthier nations, desire, is given for the amusement of those however, sometimes enables him to get a rent desires which cannot be satisfied, but seem to for it. The paving of the streets of London be altogether endless. The poor, in order to has enabled the owners of some barren rocks obtain food, exert themselves to gratity those on the coast of Scotland to draw a rent from fancies of the rich; and to obtain it more cerwhat never afforded any before. The woods tainly, they vie with one another in the cheapof Norway, and of the coasts of the Baltic, ness and perfection of their work. The numfind a market in many parts of Great Britain, which they could not find at home, and thereby afford some rent to their proprietors.

ber of workmen increases with the increasing quantity of food, or with the growing improvement and cultivation of the lands; and as the Countries are populous, not in proportion nature of their business admits of the utmost to the number of people whom their produce subdivisions of labour, the quantity of matecan clothe and lodge, but in proportion to that rials which they can work up, increases in a of those whom it can feed. When food is much greater proportion than their numbers provided, it is easy to find the necessary cloth- Hence arises a demand for every sort of inaing and lodging. But though these are at terial which human invention can employ, hand, it may often be difficult to find food. either usefully or ornamentally, in building, In some parts of the British dominions, what dress, equipage, or household furniture; for is called a house may be built by one day's the fossils and minerals contained in the bow. labour of one man. The simplest species of els of the earth, the precious metals, and the clothing, the skins of animals, require some- precious stones. what more labour to dress and prepare them Food is, in this manner, not only the origi for use. They do not, however, require anal source of rent, but every other part of the great deal. Among savage or barbarous na-produce of land which afterwards affords rent, tions, a hundredth, or little more than a hun- derives that part of its value from the im dredth part of the labour of the whole year, provement of the powers of labour in prowill be sufficient to provide them with such ducing food, by means of the improvement clothing and lodging as satisfy the greater and cultivation of land. part of the people. All the other ninety-nine parts are frequently no more than enough to provide them with food.

Those other parts of the produce of land, however, which afterwards afford rent, do not afford it always. Even in improved and cul But when, by the improvement and culti- tivated countries, the demand for them is not vation of land, the labour of one family can always such as to afford a greater price than provide food for two, the labour of half the what is sufficient to pay the labour, and resociety becomes sufficient to provide food for place, together with its ordinary profits, the the whole. The other half, therefore, or at stock which must be employed in bringing least the greater part of them, can be employ- them to market. Whether it is or is not such, ed in providing other things, or in satisfying, depends upon different circumstances.

Whether a coal mine, for example, can af- Numerous herds of cattle, when allowed to ford any rent, depends partly upon its fertili-wander through the woods, though they do ty, and partly upon its situation.

A mine of any kind may be said to be either fertile or barren, according as the quantity of mineral which can be brought from it by a certain quantity of labour, is greater or less than what can be brought by an equal quantity from the greater part of other mines of the same kind.

not destroy the old trees, hinder any young
ones from coming up; so that, in the course
of a century or two, the whole forest goes to
ruin. The scarcity of wood then raises its
price. It affords a good rent; and the land-
lord sometimes finds that he can scarce em.
ploy his best lands more advantageosly than
in growing barren timber, of which the great-
ness of the profit often compensates the late-

Some coal mines, advantageously situated, cannot be wrought on account of their barren-ness of the returns. ness. The produce does not pay the expense. They can afford neither profit nor rent.

There are some, of which the produce is barely sufficient to pay the labour, and replace, together with its ordinary profits, the stock employed in working them. They afford some profit to the undertaker of the work, but no rent to the landlord. They can be wrought advantageously by nobody but the landlord, who, being himself the undertaker of the work, gets the ordinary profit of the capital which he employs in it. Many coal mines in Scotland are wrought in this manner, and can be wrought in no other. The landlord will allow nobody else to work them without paying some rent, and nobody can afford

to pay any.

This seems, in the pre

sent times, to be nearly the state of things in
several parts of Great Britain, where the pro-
fit of planting is found to be equal to that of
either corn or pasture.
The advantage which
the landlord derives from planting can no-
where exceed, at least for any considerable
time, the rent which these could afford him;
and in an inland country, which is highly cul-
tivated, it will frequently not fall much short
of this rent.

It seems to be so in some of the

Upon the sea-coast of a wellimproved country, indeed, if coals can conveniently be had for fuel, it may sometimes be cheaper to bring barren timber for building from less cultivated foreign countries than to In the new town of Edinraise it at home. burgh, built within these few years, there is not, perhaps, a single stick of Scotch timber. Other coal mines in the same country, sufWhatever may be the price of wood, if that ficiently fertile, cannot be wrought on account of coals is such that the expense of a coal fire of their situation. A quantity of mineral, is nearly equal to that of a wood one we may sufficient to defray the expense of working, be assured, that at that place, and in these could be brought from the mine by the ordi- circumstances, the price of coals is as high as nary, or even less than the ordinary quantity it can be. of labour: but in an inland country, thinly inland parts of England, particularly in Oxinhabited, and without either good roads or fordshire, where it is usual, even in the fires water-carriage, this quantity could not be sold. of the common people, to mix coals and wood Coals are a less agreeable fuel than wood: together, and where the difference in the exthey are said too to be less wholesome. The pense of those two sorts of fuel cannot, thereexpense of coals, therefore, at the place where fore, be very great. Coals, in the coal countries, are everywhere much below this highest price. If they were not, they could not bear The price of wood, again, varies with the the expense of a distant carriage, either by state of agriculture, nearly in the same man- land or by water. A small quantity only could ner, and exactly for the same reason, as the be sold; and the coal masters and the coal price of cattle. In its rude beginnings, the proprietors find it more for their interest to greater part of every country is covered with sell a great quantity at a price somewhat above wood, which is then a mere incumbrance, of the lowest, than a small quantity at the highno value to the landlord, who would gladly est. The most fertile coal mine, too, regu give it to any body for the cutting. As agri-lates the price of coals at all the other mines

they are consumed, must generally be some

what less than that of wood.

culture advances, the woods are partly cleared in its neighbourhood.
Both the proprietor
by the progress of tillage, and partly go to de- and the undertaker of the work find, the one
cay in consequence of the increased number that he can get a greater rent, the other that
of cattle These, though they do not increase he can get a greater profit, by somewhat un-
in the same proportion as corn, which is alto- derselling all their neighbours. Their neigh
gether the acquisition of human indu try, yet bours are soon obliged to sell at the same
multiply under the care and protection of men, price, though they cannot so well afford it,
who store up in the season of plenty what and though it always diminishes, and some-
may maintain them in that of scarcity; who, times takes away altogether, both their rent
through the whole year, furnish them with a and their profit. Some works are abandoned
greater quantity of food than uncultivated na- altogether; others can afford no rent, and car
ture provides for them; and who, by destroy-be wrought only by the proprietor.

ing and extirpating their enemies, secure them The lowest price at which coals can be sold in the free enjoyment of all that she provides. for any considerable time, is, like that of all

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other commodities, the price which is barely working them, or replace, with a profit, the sufficient to replace, together with its ordinary food, clothes, lodging, and other necessaries profits, the stock which must be employed in which were consumed in that operation. This bringing them to market. At a coal mine for was the case, too, with the mines of Cuba and which the landlord can get no rent, but which St. Domingo, and even with the ancient mines he must either work himself or let it alone al- of Peru, after the discovery of those of Potogether, the price of coals must generally be tosi. nearly about this price.

The price of every metal, at every mine, Rent, even where coals afford one, has ge- therefore, being regulated in some measure nerally a smaller share in their price than in by its price at the most fertile mine in the that of most other parts of the rude produce world that is actually wrought, it can, at the of land. The rent of an estate above ground, greater part of mines, do very little more than commonly amounts to what is supposed to be pay the expense of working, and can seldom a third of the gross produce; and it is gener-afford a very high rent to the landlord. Rent ally a rent certain and independent of the oc- accordingly, seems at the greater part of casional variations in the crop. In coal mines, mines to have but a small share in the price a fifth of the gross produce is a very great of the coarse, and a still smaller in that of the rent, a tenth the common rent; and it is sel- precious metals. Labour and profit make up dom a rent certain, but depends upon the oc- the greater part of both. casional variations in the produce. These are so great, that in a country where thirty years purchase is considered as a moderate price for the property of a landed estate, ten years purchase is regarded as a good price for that of a coal mine.

A sixth part of the gross produce may be reckoned the average rent cf the tin mines of Cornwall, the most fertile that are known in the world, as we are told by the Rev. Mr. Borlace, vice-warden of the stannaries. Soine, he says, afford more, and some do not afford so much. A sixth part of the gross produce is the rent, too, of several very fertile lead mines in Scotland.

The value of a coal mine to the proprietor, frequently depends as much upon its situation as upon its fertility. That of a metallic mine depends more upon its fertility, and less upon In the silver mines of Peru, we are told by its situation. The coarse, and still more the Frezier and Ulloa, the proprietor frequently precious metals, when separated from the ore, exacts no other acknowledgment from the unare so valuable, that they can generally bear dertaker of the mine, but that he will grind the expense of a very long land, and of the the ore at his mill, paying him the ordinary most distant sea carriage. Their market is multure or price of grinding. Till 1736, innot confined to the countries in the neigh-deed, the tax of the king of Spain amounted bourhood of the mine, but extends to the to one fifth of the standard silver, which til whole world. The copper of Japan makes then might be considered as the real rent of an article of commerce in Europe; the iron the greater part of the silver mines of Peru, of Spain in that of Chili and Peru. The sil- the richest which have been known in the ver of Peru finds its way, not only to Europe, world. If there had been no tax, this fifth but from Europe to China. would naturally have belonged to the landThe price of coals in Westmoreland or lord, and many mines might have been Shropshire can have little effect on their price at Newcastle; and their price in the Lionnois can have none at all. The productions of such distant coal mines can never be brought into competition with one another. But the productions of the most distant metallic mines frequently may, and in fact commonly are.

wrought which could not then be wrought, because they could not afford this tax. The tax of the duke of Cornwall upon tin is up. posed to amount to more than five per ent. or one twentieth part of the value; and whatever may be his proportion, it would naturally, too, belong to the proprietor of the mine, The price, therefore, of the coarse, and still if tin was duty free. But if you add one more that of the precious metals, at the most twentieth to one sixth, you will find that the fertile mines in the world, must necessarily whole average rent of the tin mines of Cornmore or less affect their price at every other wall, was to the whole average rent of the sil in it. The price of copper in Japan must ver mines of Peru, as thirteen to twelve. But have some influence upon its price at the cop- the silver mines of Peru are not now able tc per mines in Europe The price of silver in pay even this low rent; and the tax upon silPeru, or the quantity either of labour or of ver was, in 1736, reduced from one fifth tc other goods which it will purchase there, must one tenth. Even this tax upon silver, too, have some influence on its price, not only at gives more temptation to smuggling than the the silver mines of Europe, but at those of tax of one twentieth upon tin; and smug. China. After the discovery of the mines of gling must be much easier in the precious Peru, the silver mines of Europe were, the than in the bulky commodity. The tax of greater part of them, abandoned. The value the king of Spain, accordingly, is said to be of silver was so much reduced, that their pro- very ill paid, and that of the duke of Cornwall duce could no longer pay the expense of very well. Rent, therefore, it is probable,

makes a greater part of the price of tin at the proportion to its bulk, but on account of the most fertile tin mines than it does of silver at peculiar way in which nature produces it. the most fertile silver mines in the world. Silver is very seldom found virgin, but, like After replacing the stock employed in work- most other metals, is generally mineralized ing those different mines, together with its or- with some other body, from which it is imdinary profits, the residue which remains to possible to separate it in such quantities as the proprietor is greater, it seems, in the will pay for the expense, but by a very laboriroarse, than in the precious metal. ous and tedious operation, which cannot well Neither are the profits of the undertakers be carried on but in work-houses erected for of silver mines commonly very great in Peru. the purpose, and, therefore, exposed to the inThe same most respectable and well-informed spection of the king's officers. Gold, on the authors acquaint us, that when any person un- contrary, is almost always found virgin. It dertakes to work a new mine in Peru, he is is sometimes found in pieces of some bulk; universally looked upon as a man destined to and, even when mixed, in small and almost bankruptcy and ruin, and is upon that ac-insensible particles, with sand, earth, and count shunned and avoided by every body.-other extraneous bodies, it can be separated Mining, it seems, is considered there in the from them by a very short and simple oper same light as here, as a lottery, in which the ation, which can be carried on in any private prizes do not compensate the blanks, though house by any body who is possessed of a small the greatness of some tempts many adventur-quantity of mercury. If the king's tax, thereers to throw away their fortunes in such un-fore, is but ill paid upon silver, it is likely to prosperous projects. be much worse paid upon gold; and rent must make a much smaller part of the price of gold than that of silver.

As the sovereign, however, derives a considerable part of his revenue from the produce of silver mines, the law in Peru gives every The lowest price at which the precious possible encouragement to the discovery and metals can be sold, or the smallest quantity of working of new ones. Whoever discovers a other goods for which they can be exchanged, new mine, is entitled to measure off two during any considerable time, is regulated by hundred and forty-six feet in length, accord- the same principles which fix the lowest ordiing to what he supposes to be the direction of nary price of all other goods. The stock the vein, and half as much in breadth. He which must commonly be employed, the food, becomes proprietor of this portion of the mine, clothes, and lodging, which must commonly and can work it without paying any acknow- be consumed in bringing them from the mine ledgment to the landlord. The interest of to the market, determine it. It must at least the duke of Cornwall has given occasion to a be sufficient to replace that stock, with the regulation nearly of the same kind in that an- ordinary profits. cient dutchy. In waste and uninclosed lands, Their highest price, however, seems not to any person who discovers a tin mine may be necessarily determined by any thing but mark out its limits to a certain extent, which the actual scarcity or plenty of these metals is called bounding a mine. The bounder be- themselves. It is not determined by that of comes the real proprietor of the mine, and any other commodity, in the same manner as may either work it himself, or give it in lease the price of coals is by that of wood, beyond to another, without the consent of the owner which no scarcity can ever raise it. Increase of the land, to whom, however, a very small the scarcity of gold to a certain degree, and acknowledgment must be paid upon working the smallest bit of it may become more preIn both regulations, the sacred rights of cious than a diamond, and exchange for a private property are sacrificed to the supposed greater quantity of other goods. interests of public revenue.

it.

The demand for those metals arises partly The same encouragement is given in Peru from their utility, and partly from their beauto the discovery and working of new gold ty. If you except iron, they are more useful mines; and in gold the king's tax amounts than, perhaps, any other metal. As they are only to a twentieth part of the standard rental. less liable to rust and impurity, they can it was once a fifth, and afterwards a tenth, as more easily be kept clean; and the utensils, in silver; but it was found that the work either of the table or the kitchen, are often, could not bear even the lowest of these two upon that account, more agreeable when made taxes. If it is rare, however, say the same of them. A silver boiler is more cleanly than authors, Frezier and Ulloa, to find a person a lead, copper, or tin one; and the same qua, who has made his fortune by a silver, it is lity would render a gold boiler still better than still much rarer to find one who has done so a silver one. Their principal merit, however by a gold mine. This twentieth part seems arises from their beauty, which renders them to be the whole rent which is paid by the peculiarly fit for the ornaments of dress and greater part of the gold mines of Chili and furniture. No paint or dye can give so splenGold, too, is much more liable to be did a colour as gilding. The merit of their snuggled than even silver; not only on ac- beauty is greatly enhanced by their scarcity count of the superior value of the metal in With the greater part of rich people, the

Peru.

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