Page:Reflections on the Formation and the Distribution of Riches by Anne Turgot.djvu/45

18

S20
First method: cultivation by men who are paid wages.

They can, in the first place, pay men by the day or the year to till their field, and reserve for themselves the whole of the produce; a method which presupposes that the Proprietor makes the advance both for seed and for the wages of the workmen until after the harvest. But this first method has the drawback of requiring much labour and assiduity on the part of the Proprietor, who alone can direct the workmen in their labours, watch over the employment of their time, and over their fidelity in not diverting from him any of the produce. It is true that he can also hire a man of more intelligence, with whose fidelity he is acquainted, who shall direct the workmen and keep an account of the produce, as overseer or manager; but he will always run the risk of being deceived. Besides, this method is extremely expensive, unless a large population and a scarcity of employment in the other kinds of work force the workmen to be content with very low wages.

S21
Second method: cultivation by slaves.

In the times bordering on the beginning of the societies it was almost impossible to find men who were ready to cultivate the soil which belonged to others; since, as all the grounds were not yet occupied, those who wished to labour preferred to clear new lands and cultivate them on