duce, yet this less share,
from the very great increase of the produce, yields a larger quantity,
and gives him a greater command of corn and labour. If the produce of
land be represented by the number six, and the landlord has one fourth
of it, his share will be represented by one and a half. If the produce
of land be as ten, and the landlord has one fifth of it, his share
will be represented by two. In the latter case, therefore, though the
proportion of the landlord's share to the whole produce is greatly
diminished, his real rent, independently of nominal price, will be
increased in the proportion of from three to four. And in general, in
all cases of increasing produce, if the landlord's share of this produce
do not diminish in the same proportion, which though it often happens
during the currency of leases, rarely or never happens on the renewal of
them, the real rents of land must rise.

We see then, that a progressive rise of rents seems to be necessarily
connected with the progressive cultivation of new land, and the
progressive improvement of the old: and that this rise is the natural
and necessary consequence of the operation of four causes, which are the
most certain indications of increasing prosperity and wealth--namely,
the accumulation of capital, the increase of population, improvements
in agriculture, and the high price of raw produce, occasioned by the
extension of our manufactures and commerce.

On the other hand, it will appear, that a fall of rents is as
necessarily connected with the throwing of inferior land out of
cultivation, and the continued deterioration of the land of a superior
quality; and that it is the natural and necessary consequence of causes,
which are the certain indications of poverty and decline, namely,
diminished capital, diminished population, a bad system of cultivation,
and the low price of raw produce.

If it be true, that cultivation cannot be extended but under such a
state of prices, compared with the expenses of production, as will allow
of an increase of rents, it follows naturally that under such a state
of relative prices as will occasion a fall of rents, cultivation must
decline. If the instruments of production become dearer, compared with
the price of produce, it is a certain sign that they are relatively
scarce; and in all those cases where a large quantity of them is
required, as in the cultivation of poor land, the means of procuring
them will be deficient,