Page:Manual of Political Economy.djvu/176

Rh by the difference between its net produce and the net produce of the inferior land which has been brought under cultivation in consequence of the reduction in the general rate of profit It is, therefore, manifest that such a reduction in the general rate of profit would cause the rent of all land to rise. Australia will one day offer a striking example of a rise in the rent of land, caused in the manner we have just described. The great inequality in the rates of profit current in England and Australia cannot permanently continue; and when profits in Australia are reduced to what they are in England, a vastly increased area of land will be brought under cultivation in Australia; the margin of cultivation will rapidly descend, and the rent of land will be greatly increased.

We will now discuss some of the other causes which may affect the rent of land. The productiveness of land has already been much increased, and is perhaps destined still farther to be increased, by improved implements. Confident predictions have been made by competent persons that steam cultivation will materially diminish the cost of tillage. If this be the case, the net produce of every farm, as we have defined it, will be greatly increased, and, therefore, rents will as a consequence rise from this diminution in the expense of cultivation. But when rents rise, the margin of cultivation will descend; for if the cost of cultivation is diminished by steam machinery, land may be profitably cultivated which before would not pay the expenses of tillage. The farmers, therefore, will ultimately receive no special advantage from the introduction of improvements in the method of cultivation. Temporarily they may be benefited; for those who first avail themselves of the improved machinery may for a long time continue to derive an important advantage, because, until the machinery has been generally introduced, rents will not be raised. Ultimately, however, the whole of the advantage will be absorbed by the landlords; for if the expenses of cultivation are diminished, the farmers will be able to pay a higher rent, and the competition of capital will render it impossible to resist the increase of rent. We have purposely said that the landlords.