The Sun.
London, England, 1833-11-15 00:00:00

'and in a new country will yield little or no rent,
viz., that " in the town of Sidney, in New Hol-
land, the rent of land is nearly as high as in
London ; that a very high rent is paid for
land in Hobart Town, Van Diemen's Land,
in Montreal, in the new town of York, in Upper
Canada, and in every town in the United States,
not excepting those which have been created
within these two years ; that in the immediate
neighbourhood of all such towns a considerable
rent is paid for garden ground and accommoda-
tion land." Having shown that the main
foundation of the theory of rent is erroneous,
the writer simply states rent to arise from com-
petition for the use of land. RICARDO'S mis-
take as to the origin of rent is now universally
acknowledged, but the author of " England and
America" here appears to go a step beyond his
correction. He then enters into an examina-
tion of the various kinds of competition which
give value to land. "In England land is used for
growing corn, for breeding and fattening cattle,
for producing milk, kitchen vegetables and fruit,
for the growth of timber and other raw materials
of several manufactures, factories, houses in
towns, villas and mansions, for pleasure grounds,
parks and game preserves, besides an infinity
of other purposes." The illustrations of the
manner in which degrees of competition arise
are all good. The fiflh, sixth, and seventh
we must quote :

" 5. Every one at all acquainted with rural affairs in Eng-
land or Scotland must know of cases, in which the making of a
canal or a road has raised the rent of land throughout the
borders of the new line of communication. In such cases,
what the tenant saves by a decrease in the cost of manure, and
of taking produce to market, falls to the landlord in the shape
of rent : in such cases, a higher rent may be paid with the
same profit as before, and is paid because a higher degree of
competition has taken place.
" 6. But how much more striking is the increase of rent on
and around some parts of the borders of new lines of communi-
cation, which are chosen for the sites of towns or villages. In
these cases ground rents, garden rents, and accommodation
rents, are now paid for land which before yielded rent for only
the second degree, perhaps, of natural fertility; such higher
rents being paid because some of the higher degrees of compe.
tition have been created where only the lowest degree existed
before. The land around every English town, which has much,
increased during the last thirty years, furnishes to numbers an
example of this kind with which they must be familiar ; a case
in which, through the increase of wealth and population, land
which formerly yielded only garden and accommodation rent
now yields building rent; land, which formerly yielded only a
farming rent, now yields garden and accommodation rent ; and
land, still used for farming, is more productive with the same
cost, or as productive with less cost, and is therefore worth a
higher rent, in consequence of more manure and a greater de-
mand for farm produce in the neighbourhood of such mere
f arming land.
" 7. On that part of the coast of the Mediterranean formerly
subject to the Genoese republic, very little corn and no meat
was ever produced; on the other side of the Appenines, in
Piedmont, there are districts which produce scarce anything
but corn and cattle; and part of the produce of those districts
is consumed in the Genoese territory. Yet the rent of land, on
the mountainous coast of the Gulph of Genoa, was a few years
back, and'probably still is, considerably higher than in those very
fertile districts of Piedmont, from which the Genoese derive a
part of their food. This difference of rent is easily explained.
In Piedmont, there was no competition for the use of land,
except in producing corn and meat. The soil of Genoa being
unsuited to the production of corn and meat, the Genoese
turned their industry into the channels of manufactures and
commerce, whereby they were enabled to obtain corn and
meat from foreign soils. Obtaining corn and meat with an
outlay of capital, much less than would have been required to
raise the same produce on their own territory, they created, by
the increase of wealth and population, a demand for produc-
tions, which were easily raised on their own soil, such as gar.
den vegetables, fruit, olive oil, silk, and wine. Thus land,
which if it had been used for growing corn or feeding cattle,
would, at best, have returned a produce not more than suffi-
cient to replace capital with profit, and for which, therefore, no
rent could have been paid, now yielded a rent equal to the dif-
ference between the ♦alue of the produce and the cost of pro.
duction. In this case, land which was sterile for one purpose,
became fertile for another. Then, as by means of importing
corn and meat, the wealth and population of the state increased,
roads were carried into narrow valleys which before had been
shut against competition, and thus the land of those
valleys which before had been worth nothing, came to
be valuable, and to yield rent accordingly. Lastly,
with the further increase of wealth and population, owing
entirely to the continued cheapness of corn and meat,
there occurred an extensive demand for the use of land
in many ways besides cultivation. The inhabitants of Genoa
the Magnificent (magnificent, because without corn laws), re.
quired, besides houses, warehouses, and other buildings within
the city walls, country villas, pleasure gardens, and ornamented
grounds. For these, the staff of life being cheap, they could
well afford to pay without regard to profit. Thus much land
acquired a value far exceeding the difference between the valise
and the cost of things raised for sale. What had occurred near
the city of Genoa, took place, more or less, at other places on
the coast, where there arose such towns as Spezia, Noli, Voltri,
and Savona, and where some land, sterile for producing corn or
meat, came to yield a rent for the use of it in producing other
things; while some land, neither more nor less fertile for any
purpose of cultivation, yielded a rent much higher than was
ever paid for the most fertile land used in producing commodi-
ties for market. The orignal cause of all, or nearly all, the
rent paid in the Genoese territory, was the importation of corn
and meat, which produced all the higher degrees of competi-
tion for the use of land on spots where, unless the staff of life
had been imported from foreign soils, the lowest degree of
competition could hardly have existed. How the Genoese would
stare, if Mr. Mill, explaining to them the cause of high rent in
their sterile country, were to begin with the first sentence of
his chapter on rent : ' Land is of different degrees of fertility !' "

We have long laboured to show that a
restriction upon the ability of our manu-
facturers to exchange their labour for foreign
corn was, by the manner in which it depressed
the general growth of wealth, as injurious to the
owners of land as to the working classes them-
selves. We are happy at having so able a
champion to oppose to Colonel THOMPSON.
That gentleman, in his " Catechism of the
Corn Laws," and elsewhere, assumes that land-
lords benefit by the Corn Laws. That they
intend their own advantage by them there can
be no doubt ; but the author before us very
justly observes that there is a wide difference
between intention and effect. He shows that
even as regards the two least causes of compe-
tition for land, natural fertility and capital fixed
on the soil, " which is the same as superior na-
tural fertility," the landlord would ultimately
experience no injury from bread being sold at half
its present price, whilst every other cause of com-
petition would act with tenfold energy, and in-
crease his rent incalculably. The author thus
sums up this part of the question :

" Let us suppose the population and wealth of the country
to be doubled ; a supposition by no means extravagant, after
supposing that the staff of life had been very cheap during one
generation. In this case, the extent of roads, though not
doubled, would be greatly increased. On many of the new
lines of road, as well as on those which exist already, market
towns would be built in spots, where, at present, neither ma-
nure can be obtained nor produce sold. In the next place, a
L.rge proportion of the people called into existence by cheap-
ness of bread, would reside in towns; so that, with double the
actual population, the town population would be much more
than doubled. In this way, land, which is now of second or
third rate quality in respect to position, to manure and a
market, would become first rate and second rate. Thus, also,
the extent of land required for producing perishable food,
such as milk, fruit, and kitchen vegetables, would be more
than twice as much as it is now. And, finally, the demand
for pleasure gardens, pleasure grounds, and for building
ground, would be more than doubled with the supposed in-
crease of wealth and population. Whatever the increase of
wealth and population year by year, all the higher degrees of
competition for land would be much snore rapidly extended.
" Thus, while a free trade in corn might extend to some
land, which is of inferior quality for the growth of corn, a
superior ,:uality for the growth of other things, not lessening
the value of any capital fixed upon land, but rather increasing
the power of such capital by spreading a mode of cultivation
snore suited to the soil and climate of England ; while com-
petition for superior natural fertiity, and the use of fixed
capital, might be rather increased than diminished, the in-
fluence of all the higher degrees of competition would, it
seems quite plain, be extended incalculably. The aggregate
rental of the country must necessarily increase to the same
extent. All landowners, indeed, would not derive equal be-
nefit, in proportion to their present rentals, from such an ea.