and the land will be thrown out of employment.

It appeared, that in the progress of cultivation and of increasing
rents, it was not necessary that all the instruments of production
should fall in price at the same time; and that the difference between
the price of produce and the expense of cultivation might increase,
although either the profits of stock or the wages of labour might be
higher, instead of lower.

In the same manner, when the produce of a country is declining, and
rents are falling, it is not necessary that all the instruments of
production should be dearer. In a declining or stationary country, one
most important instrument of production is always cheap, namely, labour;
but this cheapness of labour does not counterbalance the disadvantages
arising from the dearness of capital; a bad system of culture; and,
above all, a fall in the price of raw produce, greater than in the price
of the other branches of expenditure, which, in addition to labour, are
necessary to cultivation.

It has appeared also, that in the progress of cultivation and of
increasing rents, rent, though greater in positive amount, bears a less,
and lesser proportion to the quantity of capital employed upon the
land, and the quantity of produce derived from it. According to the same
principle, when produce diminishes and rents fall, though the amount of
rent will always be less, the proportion which it bears to capital
and produce will always be greater. And, as in the former case, the
diminished proportion of rent was owing to the necessity of yearly
taking fresh land of an inferior quality into cultivation, and
proceeding in the improvement of old land, when it would return only the
common profits of stock, with little or no rent; so, in the latter case,
the high proportion of rent is owing to the impossibility of obtaining
produce, whenever a great expenditure is required, and the necessity
of employing the reduced capital of the country, in the exclusive
cultivation of its richest lands.

In proportion, therefore, as the relative state of prices is such as
to occasion a progressive fall of rents, more and more lands will
be gradually thrown out of cultivation, the remainder will be worse
cultivated, and the diminution of produce will proceed still faster than
the diminution of rents.

If the doctrine here laid down, respecting the laws which govern the
rise and fall of rents, be near the truth, the doctrine which maintains
that,