Page:Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat.djvu/237

Rh division of landed property, men of small fortune uniting in the purchase with capitalists who seek only the rent or payment for the land."

"Great capitalists could not themselves cultivate vast extents of land, and not wanting to diminish their revenues by renting them, would be induced to sell portions suitable for cultivation by their new owners, and would then carry their money into new industrial and commercial enterprises." "The competition of the sellers would cause a momentary fall in the price of the lands, and would enable small farmers to become land-owners. The number of vast estates often badly managed would then be diminished, and considerable fortunes, changing hands more easily, would naturally pass into those which would be most likely to increase their value."

"Proprietors, becoming cultivators to escape the taxes, would settle in the country, where their presence would disseminate intelligence and comfort; their revenues, before spent unprofitably, would then pay expenses and improvements on their property." "The establishment of such a tax would certainly find many opponents among proprietors, landed non-cultivators who form in fact the