portion of it. It is not, therefore, correct to represent, as Adam Smith does, the profits of capital as a deduction from the produce of labour. They are only a fair remuneration for that part of the production contributed by the capitalist, estimated exactly in the same way as the contribution of the labourer.
The third condition to be fulfilled is, that the prices of commodities should be such as to effect the continued supply of the food and raw materials used by the labourers and capitalists; and we know that this price cannot be paid without yielding a rent to the landlord on almost all the land actually in use. In speaking of the landlords, Adam Smith's language is again exceptionable. He represents them, rather invidiously, as loving to reap where they have not sown, and as obliging the labourer to pay for a license to obtain those natural products which, when land was in common, cost only the trouble of collecting.[1] But he would himself be the first to acknowledge, that if land were not appropriated, its produce would be very much less abundant compared with the demand, and that consequently the producers and consumers would be much worse off; and if it be appropriated, some persons or other must necessarily be the proprietors. It matters not to the society, whether these persons are the same or different from the actual cultivators of the land. The price of the produce will be determined by the general supply compared with the general money demand, and will be the same, or very nearly so, whether the cultivator pays a rent, or uses the land without rent. The only difference would be, that, in the latter case, what remains of this price after paying the necessary labour and profits, will go to the same person that advanced the capital, which is equivalent to saying that the farmer would be better off if he were also the possessor of land, a fact not to be disputed; but_it cannot imply, that the labourer or rent who in the lottery of human life has not drawn a prize of land, suffers any hardship or injustice
- ↑ Wealth of Nations, B. I. ch. vi. p. 74, 6th edit.
