loss, instead of gaining a benefit.

A similar caution is necessary in raising rents, even when the rise of
prices seems as if it would be permanent. In the progress of prices and
rents, rent ought always to be a little behind; not only to afford the
means of ascertaining whether the rise be temporary or permanent, but
even in the latter case, to give a little time for the accumulation of
capital on the land, of which the landholder is sure to feel the full
benefit in the end.

There is no just reason to believe, that if the lands were to give the
whole of their rents to their tenants, corn would be more plentiful and
cheaper. If the view of the subject, taken in the preceding inquiry,
be correct, the last additions made to our home produce are sold at the
cost of production, and the same quantity could not be produced from our
own soil at a less price, even without rent. The effect of transferring
all rents to tenants, would be merely the turning them into gentlemen,
and tempting them to cultivate their farms under the superintendence
of careless and uninterested bailiffs, instead of the vigilant eye of
a master, who is deterred from carelessness by the fear of ruin, and
stimulated to exertion by the hope of a competence. The most numerous
instances of successful industry, and well-directed knowledge, have been
found among those who have paid a fair rent for their lands; who have
embarked the whole of their capital in their undertaking; and who
feel it their duty to watch over it with unceasing care, and add to it
whenever it is possible. But when this laudable spirit prevails among a
tenantry, it is of the very utmost importance to the progress of riches,
and the permanent increase of rents, that it should have the power as
well as the will to accumulate; and an interval of advancing prices,
not immediately followed by a proportionate rise of rents, furnishes the
most effective powers of this kind. These intervals of advancing prices,
when not succeeded by retrograde movements, most powerfully contribute
to the progress of national wealth. And practically I should say, that
when once a character of industry and economy has been established,
temporary high profits are a more frequent and powerful source of
accumulation, than either an increased spirit of saving, or any other
cause that can be named. [19] It is the only cause which seems capable
of accounting for the prodigious accumulation among individuals, which
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