ty be produced. It very rarely
happens, however, that all the lands of a country actually occupied are
good, and yield a good net rent. And in all cases, a fall of prices must
destroy agricultural capital during the currency of leases; and on their
renewal there would not be the same power of production.]

[Footnote 15: This conclusion may appear to contradict the doctrine of
the level of the precious metals. And so it does, if by level be meant
level of value estimated in the usual way. I consider the doctrine,
indeed, as quite unsupported by facts, and the comparison of the
precious metals to water perfectly inaccurate. The precious metals are
always tending to a state of rest, or such a state of things as to make
their movement unnecessary. But when this state of rest has been nearly
attained, and the exchanges of all countries are nearly at par, the
value of the precious metals in different countries, estimated in corn
and labour, or the mass of commodities, is very far indeed from being
the same. To be convinced of this, it is only necessary to look at
England, France, Poland, Russia, and India, when the exchanges are at
par. That Adam Smith, who proposes labour as the true measure of value
at all times and in all places, could look around him, and yet say that
the precious metals were always the highest in value in the richest
countries, has always appeared to me most unlike his usual attention to
found his theories on facts.]

[Footnote 16: Even upon the system of importation, in the actual state
and situation of the countries of Europe, higher prices must accompany
superior and increasing wealth.]

[Footnote 17: We must not be so far deceived by the evidence before
Parliament, relating to the want of connection between the prices of
corn and of labour, as to suppose that they are really independent of
each other. The price of the necessaries of life is, in fact, the cost
of producing labour. The supply cannot proceed, if it be not paid; and
though there will always be a little latitude, owing to some variations
of industry and habits, and the distance of time between the
encouragement to population and the period of the results appearing in
the markets: yet it is a still greater error, to suppose the price of
labour unconnected with the price of corn, than to suppose that the
price of corn immediately and completely regulates it. Corn and labour
rarely march quite abreast; but there is an obvious limit, beyond