Page:Reflections on the Formation and the Distribution of Riches by Anne Turgot.djvu/41

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14
REFLECTIONS ON THE FORMATION

or more prudent; and, in this infinitely varied inequality of possessions, it is impossible but that many Proprietors should have more than they can cultivate. Besides, it is natural enough that a rich man should wish to enjoy his wealth in tranquillity, and that instead of employing his whole time in toilsome labours, he should prefer to give a part of his superfluity to people who will work for him.

S14

Division of the produce between the Cultivator & the Proprietor. Net produce[1] or revenue.

By this new arrangement the produce of the land is divided into two parts. The one includes the subsistence and the profits of the Husbandman, which are the reward of his labour and the condition upon which he undertakes to cultivate the field of the Proprietor. What remains is that independent and disposable part which the land gives as a pure gift to him who cultivates it, over and above his advances[2] and the wages of his trouble; and this is the portion of the Proprietor, or the revenue[3] with which the latter can live without labour and which he carries where he will.

S15

New division of the Society into three classes, of Cultivators, of Artisans & of Proprietors; or the productive class, the stipendiary class and the disposable class.[4]

  1. Produit net
  2. Avances.
  3. Revenu.
  4. Classe disponible.