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 landlord sometimes finds that he can scarce employ his best lands more advantageosly than in growing barren timber, of which the greatSome coal mines, advantageously situated, ness of the profit often compensates the latecannot be wrought on account of their barren-ness of the returns. This seems, in the preness. 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.

sent times, to be nearly the state of things in several parts of Great Britain, where the profit of planting is found to be equal to that of either corn or pasture. The advantage which the landlord derives from planting can nowhere exceed, at least for any considerable time, the rent which these could afford him; and in an inland country, which is highly cultivated, it will frequently not fall much short of this rent. Upon the sea-coast of a wellimproved country, indeed, if coats can conveniently be had for fuel, it may sometimes be cheaper to bring barren timber for building from less cultivated foreign countries than to raise it at home. In the new town of Edinburgh, built within these few years, there is not, perhaps, a single stick of Scotch timber.

Other coal mines in the same country, suf- Whatever 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 tould 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. It seems to be so in some of the 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 counthey are consumed, must generally be some-tries, are everywhere much below this highest what less than that of wood. 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 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 unin the same proportion as corn, which is alto- derselling all their neighbours. Their nei h 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 somemay 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 can 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

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 which the lardlord can get no rent, but which be must either work himself or let it alone altogether, the price of coals must generally be nearly about this price.

was the case, too, with the mines of Cuba and St. Domingo, and even with the ancient mines of Peru, after the discovery of those of Po tosi.

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 of 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. Some, 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 till hole 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, but from Europe to China.

The price of coals in Westmoreland or 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.

world. If there had been no tax, this fifth would naturally have belonged to the landlord, and many mines might have been wrought which could not then be wrought, because they could not afford this tax. The tax of the duke of Cornwall upon tin is supposed to amount to more than five per cent. or one twentieth part of the value; and whatever may be his proportion, it would natu.. ally, 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 silin 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 to 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 to 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 smugChina. 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 tha' 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 p. e 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 laboricoarse, 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 opersame light as here, as a lottery, in which the prizes do not compensate the blanks, though the greatness of some tempts many adventurers to throw away their fortunes in such unprosperous projects.

ation, which can be carried on in any private house by any body who is possessed of a small quantity of mercury. If the king's tax, therefore, is but ill paid upon silver, it is likely to be much worse paid upon gold; and rent must make a much smaller part of the price of gold than that of silver.

The lowest price at which the precious metals can be sold, or the smallest quantity of other goods for which they can be exchanged, during any considerable time, is regulated by the same principles which fix the lowest ordinary price of all other goods. The stock which must commonly be employed, the food, clothes, and lodging, which must commonly be consumed in bringing them from the mine to the market, determine it. It must at least be sufficient to replace that stock, with the ordinary profits.

As the sovereign, however, derives a considerable part of his revenue from the produce of silver mines, the law in Peru gives every possible encouragement to the discovery and working of new ones. Whoever discovers a new mine, is entitled to measure off two hundred and forty-six feet in length, according to what he supposes to be the direction of the vein, and half as much in breadth. He becomes proprietor of this portion of the mine, and can work it without paying any acknowledgment to the landlord. The interest of the duke of Cornwall has given occasion to a regulation nearly of the same kind in that ancient 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 preit. In both regulations, the sacred rights of cious than a diamond, and exchange for a private property are sacrificed to the supposed greater quantity of otner goods. interests of public revenue.

The demand for those metals arises par ly 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 quawho 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 splen. Peru. Gold, too, is much more liable to be did a colour as gilding. The merit of their smuggled 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

to purchase or coinmand an equal quartity either of labour or cf commodities.

The value, both of the produce and of the rent, the real revenue which they afforded, both to the public and to the proprietor, might have been the same.

chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches; which, in their eye, is never so complete as when they appear to possess those decisive marks of opulence which nobody can possess but themselves. In their eyes, the merit of an object, which is in any degree either useful or beautiful, is greatly enhanced The most abundant mines, either of the by its scarcity, or by the great labour which precious metals, or of the precious stones, it requires to collect any considerable quantity could add little to the wealth of the world. of it; a labour which nobody can afford to A produce, of which the value is principally pay but themselves. Such objects they are derived from its scarcity, is necessarily degradwilling to purchase at a higher price than ed by its abundance. A service of plate, and things much more beautiful and useful, but the other frivolous ornaments of dress and more common. These qualities of utility, furniture, could be purchased for a smaller beauty, and scarcity, are the original found-quantity of labour, or for a smaller quantity ation of the high price of those metals, or of of commodities; and in this would consist the the great quantity of other goods for which they can everywhere be exchanged. This value was antecedent to, and independent of their being employed as coin, and was the quality which fitted them for that employ-rent, is in proportion to their absolute, and ment. That employment, however, by occasioning a new demand, and by diminishing the quantity which could be employed in any other way, may have afterwards contributed to keep up or increase their value.

sole advantage which the world could derive from that abundance.

It is otherwise in estates above ground. The value, both of their produce and of their

not to their relative fertility. The land which produces a certain quantity of food, clothes, and lodging, can always feed, clothe, and lodge, a certain number of people; and whatever may be the proportion of the landlord, it will always give him a proportionable command of the labour of those people, and of the commodities with which that labour can sup ply him. The value of the most barren land is not diminished by the neighbourhood of the most fertile. On the contrary, it is generally increased by it. The great number of people maintained by the fertile lands afford a market to many parts of the produce of the barren, which they could never have found among those whom their own produce could maintain.

The demand for the precious stones arises altogether from their beauty. They are of no use but as ornaments; and the merit of their beauty is greatly enhanced by their scarcity, or by the difficulty and expense of getting them from the mine. Wages and profit accordingly make up, upon most occasions, almost the whole of the high price. Rent comes in but for a very small share, frequently for no share; and the most fertile mines only afford any considerable rent. When Tavernier, a jeweller, visited the diamond mines of Golconda and Visiapour, he was informed that Whatever increases the fertility of land in the sovereign of the country, for whose bene-producing food, increases not only the value fit they were wrought, had ordered all of them to be shut up except those which yielded the largest and finest stones. The other, it seems, were to the proprietor not worth the working.

of the lands upon which the improvement is bestowed, but contributes likewise to increase that of many other lands, by creating a new demand for their produce. That abundance of food, of which, in consequence of the imAs the prices, both of the precious metals provement of land, many people have the disand of the precious stones, is regulated all posal beyond what they themselves can conover the world by their price at the most fer-sume, is the great cause of the demand, both tile mine in it, the rent which a mine of either for the precious metals and the precious stones, can afford to its proprietor is in proportion, as well as for every other conveniency and ornot to its absolute, but to what may be called nament of dress, lodging, household furniture, its relative fertility, or to its superiority over and equipage. Food not only constitutes the other mines of the same kind. If new mines principal part of the riches of the world, but were discovered, as much superior to those of it is the abundance of food which gives the Potosi, as they were superior to those of Eu- principal part of their value to many other rope, the value of silver might be so much de- sorts of riches. The poor inhabitants of Cuba graded as to render even the mines of Potosi and St. Domingo, when they were first disnot worth the working. Before the discovery covered by the Spaniards, used to wear litle of the Spanish West Indies, the most fertile bits of gold as ornaments in their hair and mines in Europe may have afforded as great other parts of their dress. They seemed to a rent to their proprietors as the richest mines value them as we would do any little pebbles in Peru do at present. Though the quantity of somewhat more than ordinary beauty, and of silver was much less, it might have exchang- to consider them as just worth the picking up, ed for an equal quantity of other goods, and but not worth the refusing to any body who the proprietor's share might have enabled him | asked them. They gave them to their new

guests at the first request, without seeming to | ver mine may extend over the whole known think that they had made them any very val- world. Unless the world in general, thereuable present. They were astonished to ob- fore, be advancing in improvement and popu. serve the rage of the Spaniards to obtain lation, the demand for silver might not be at them; and had no notion that there could all increased by the improvement even of a anywhere be a country in which many people large country in the neighbourhood of the had the disposal of so great a superfluity of mine. Even though the world in general food; so scanty always among themselves, were improving, yet if, in the course of its that, for a very small quantity of those glit- improvements, new mines should be discovertering baubles, they would willingly give as ed, much more fertile than any which had much as might maintain a whole family for been known before, though the demand for many years. Could they have been made to silver would necessarily increase, yet the supunderstand this, the passion of the Spaniards ply might increase in so much a greater prowould not have surprised them. portion, that the real price of that metal might gradually fall; that is, any given quantity, a pound weight of it, for example, might gradually purchase or command a smaller and a smaller quantity of labour, or exchange for a smaller and a smaller quantity of corn, the principal part of the subsistence of the labourer.

PART III.-Of the variations in the Proportion between the respective Values of that sort of Produce which always affords Rent, and of that which sometimes does, and sometimes does not, afford Rent.

THE increasing abundance of food, in consequence of the increasing improvement and cultivation, must necessarily increase the deinand for every part of the produce of land which is not food, and which can be applied either to use or to ornament. In the whole progress of improvement, it might, therefore, be expected there should be only one variation in the comparative values of those two different sorts of produce. The value of that sort which sometimes does, and sometimes does not afford rent, should constantly rise in proportion to that which always affords some rent. As art and industry advance, the materials of clothing and lodging, the useful fossils and materials of the earth, the precious metals and the precious stones, should gradually come to be more and more in demand, should gradually exchange for a greater and a greater quantity of food; or, in other words, should gradually become dearer and dearer. This, accordingly, has been the case with most of these things upon most occasions, and would have been the case with all of them upon all occasions, if particular accidents had not, upon some occasions, increased the supply of some of them in a still greater proportion than the demand.

The great market for silver is the commercial and civilized part of the world.

If, by the general progress of improvement, the demand of this market should increase, while, at the same time, the supply did not increase in the same proportion, the value of silver would gradually rise in proportion to that of corn. Any given quantity of silver would exchange for a greater and a greater quantity of corn; or, in other words, the average money price of corn would gradually be come cheaper and cheaper.

If, on the contrary, the supply, by some accident, should increase, for many years together, in a greater proportion than the demand, that metal would gradually become cheaper and cheaper; or, in other words, the average money price of corn would, in spite of all improvements, gradually become dearer and dearer.

But if, on the other hand, the supply of that metal should increase nearly in the same proportion as the demand, it would continue to purchase or exchange for nearly the same quantity of corn; and the average money price of corn would, in spite of all improvements, continue very nearly the same,

These three seem to exhaust all the possible combinations of events which can happen in The value of a free-stone quarry, for ex- the progress of improvement; and during the ample, will necessarily increase with the in-course of the four centuries preceding the creasing improvement and population of the present, if we may judge by what has happencountry round about it, especially it it should ed both in France and Great Britain, each of be the only one in the neighbourhood. But those three different combinations seems to the value of a silver mine, even though there have taken place in the European market, and should not be another within a thousand miles nearly in the same order, too, in which I have of it, will not necessarily increase with the here set them down. improvement of the country in which it is si tuated. The market for the produce of a free-stone quarry can seldom extend more than a few miles round about it, and the demand must generally be in proportion to the improvement and population of that small district; but the market for the produce of a sil

Digression concerning the Variations in the ralue of Silver during the Course of the Four last Centuries.

First Period.-In 1350, and for some time before, the average price of the quarter o