Page:Manual of Political Economy.djvu/30

Rh Contents. xix Chapter VII. Metayers and Cottiers, and the Economic aspects of Tenant-Right Metayer and Cottier tenancy described — In the metayer tenure the rent paid is always a fixed portion of the produce, but not always one-half — In Tuscany the metayer rent is two-thirds of the produce — The metayers who cultivate the most fertile land enjoy a beneficial interest — Fixed customs reflate the conditions of the metayer tenure, although these conditions vary in different countries — ^The contradictoryopinions with regard to the effects of metayer tenure explained— Why metayer farming is bad in France and extremely good in Italy — The condition of Irish cottiers most deplorable — Cottier rents are regulated by the competition of population, and are therefore often so high that they can never be paid — The Irish tenure termed * conacre' explained — The Ulster tenant-right is a premium paid for the good-will of a farm by the incoming to the outgoing tenant ; tenant-rieht is also often understood to mean compensation for unexhausted improvements — The Irish Land Acts of 1870 and 188 1 — Tenant-right m England — Permissive tenant-right was sought to be established in England by the Agricultural Holdings Act 1875 — Tenant-right, especially in such a country as Elngland, is chiefly to be justified not on the ground of protection to tenants but that the public are interested in the more efficient cultivation of the soil which is thus promoted — The Tenants' Improvements Act 1883 PAGES 211—230 Chapter VIII. National Education and other Remedies for Low Wages, The average wages are determined by a ratio between capital and the number of the labouring population — If this ratio remains constant, waffes cannot be increased, unless profits are diminished, or labour is made more efficient — Any advance in wages in a particular trade, which reduces the profits of that trade below the current rate, cannot be permanent— A law to regulate wages must either be mischievous or nuffatory — Equally unsatisfactory results would ensue if the length of a day's work were regulated by law — Associations of labourers when carrying on business on their own account have an opportunity of showing whether men who now suffer from excessive employment could do as much if they worked a smaller number of hours each day — The State cannot find work for all the unemployed, unless population is restrained by law— No remedy for low wages can exert any decided permanent influence unless it increases the efficiency of labour and improves the social and moral condition of the labourers — Hence National Education is not only the most effectual but also an essential remedy — Since the introduction of National Education there has been a considerable decrease in crime, pauperism and drunkenness — Explanation of the way in which education directly increases the efficiency of labour — Emigration may be a most efficient remedy for low wages— The advantages resulting from the allotment system — The enclosure of commons has often inflicted great injury not only on the poor but also on the general public— These enclosures Digitized by Google