d, whether the landlord, the crown, or
the actual cultivator.

Rent then has been traced to the same common nature with that general
surplus from the land, which is the result of certain qualities of the
soil and its products; and it has been found to commence its separation
from profits, as soon as profits and wages fall, owing to the
comparative scarcity of fertile land in the natural progress of a
country towards wealth and population.

Having examined the nature and origin of rent, it remains for us to
consider the laws by which it is governed, and by which its increase or
decrease is regulated.

When capital has accumulated, and labour fallen on the most eligible
lands of a country, other lands less favourably circumstanced with
respect to fertility or situation, may be occupied with advantage. The
expenses of cultivation, including profits, having fallen, poorer land,
or land more distant from markets, though yielding at first no rent,
may fully repay these expenses, and fully answer to the cultivator. And
again, when either the profits of stock or the wages of labour, or both,
have still further fallen, land still poorer, or still less favourably
situated, may be taken into cultivation. And, at every step, it is
clear, that if the price of produce does not fall, the rents of land
will rise. And the price of produce will not fall, as long as the
industry and ingenuity of the labouring classes, assisted by the
capitals of those not employed upon the land, can find something to give
in exchange to the cultivators and landlords, which will stimulate them
to continue undiminished their agricultural exertions, and maintain
their increasing excess of produce.

In tracing more particularly the laws which govern the rise and fall of
rents, the main causes which diminish the expenses of cultivation, or
reduce the cost of the instruments of production, compared with the
price of produce, require to be more specifically enumerated. The
principal of these seem to be four: first, such an accumulation of
capital as will lower the profits of stock; secondly, such an increase
of population as will lower the wages of labour; thirdly, such
agricultural improvements, or such increase of exertions, as will
diminish the number of labourers necessary to produce a given effect;
and fourthly, such an increase in the price of agricultural produce,
from increased demand, as without nominally lowering the expense of
production, will in