Page:Manual of Political Economy.djvu/127

78 productive land requires more labour and capital, yet the general value of agricultural produce will be but slightly affected. For it may be urged that the productiveness of the land which was previously cultivated will not in any way be diminished, on account of the more expensive culture required by the less productive land, which is now resorted to. A portion only of the produce which is raised from the land will require a greater outlay of labour and capital, the productiveness of all the remaining land will be unchanged, and hence it may be argued that no serious impediment can be caused to the production of wealth. We must repeat, that when an increased demand for food brings less productive land into cultivation, this food is obtained at a greater cost of labour and capital, and therefore food becomes more expensive. But the value of wheat of the same quality does not vary, when brought to market, because one sack of wheat has been produced at a greater cost than another; of course this is a matter of no consideration to the purchaser, but simply to the growers of wheat. If, therefore, it is necessary that the price of wheat should rise, in order to make the cultivation of inferior land remunerative, the price of all the wheat grown must rise in a similar manner, and food consequently becomes more expensive. If by these causes the price of wheat is raised, it is manifest that the farmers who cultivate the more productive land must derive a great advantage, because the produce which they obtain does not require more labour and capital, and yet its price is materially increased. The farmers, however, cannot in the long run appropriate this advantage to themselves, as the landlords secure it in the form of increased rent. A further discussion on this branch of the subject would involve an explanation of the theory of rent; and this theory does not properly belong to the production, but to the distribution of wealth.

The important proposition we wish to establish concerning the production of wealth is that an increased demand for food has a tendency to make food more expensive, and as such an increased demand is almost always caused by an increased population, we may enunciate the principle thus: that as population advances,