The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Preface.
• Conversation I.: Introduction.
• Conversation II.: Introduction — Continued.
• Conversation III.: On Property.
• Conversation IV.: On Property— Continued.
• Conversation V.: On the Division of Labour.
• Conversation VI.: On Capital.
• Conversation VII.: On Capital — Continued.
• Conversation VIII.: On Wages and Population.
• Conversation IX.: On Wages and Population. Continued.
• Conversation X.: On the Condition of the Poor.
• Conversation XI.: On Revenue.
• Conversation XII.: On Revenue Derived From Property In Land.
• Conversation XIII.: On Revenue Derived From the Cultivation of Land.
• Conversation XIV.: On the Revenue of Those Who Do Not Employ Their Capital Themselves.
• Conversation XV.: On Value and Price.
• Conversation XVI.: On Money.
• Conversation XVII.: Subject of Money Continued.
• Conversation XVIII.: On Commerce.
• Conversation XIX.: On Foreign Trade.
• Conversation XX.: Continuation of Foreign Trade.
• Conversation XXI.: Subject of Foreign Trade Continued.
• Conversation XXII.: On Expenditure.

CONVERSATION XIII.

ON REVENUE DERIVED FROM THE CULTIVATION OF LAND.

caroline.

From the subject of our last conversation I have learnt that agriculture yields two distinct incomes: one to the proprietor, the other to the cultivator of the land.

mrs. b.

And it employs also two capitals to produce those incomes; the one to purchase, the other to cultivate the land. A man who lays out money in the purchase of land becomes a landed proprietor, and obtains a revenue in the form of rent. He who lays out capital in the cultivation of land becomes a farmer, and obtains a revenue in the form of produce.

caroline.

I thought that the land was the capital from which the farmer derived his profits.

mrs. b.

You mistake: the land is the capital of its proprietor, and as such yields him a revenue; whatever the farmer obtains from it, is derived from cultivation; that is to say, from the labour and expense he bestows on the soil. The cultivation of land is to the farmer what the operation of machinery is to the manufacturer. A farmer requires capital to pay his labourers, and to purchase his farming-stock, such as cattle, waggons, ploughs, &c. It is the bare land and the farming buildings which he rents. The crops which are upon the ground when the agreement is made are paid for independently, and become the property of the farmer. Unless therefore he has a capital to defray these expenses, he cannot take the lease of a farm.

caroline.

I always supposed that the produce of a farm was sufficient to defray its expenses; nor can I understand how profits are to be derived from a farm, if the cultivation and rent cost more than its produce will repay.

mrs. b.

It is not so. The capital of the farmer is employed as the means of cultivating his farm; and when at the end of the year, after paying his rent, his labourers, and keeping his stock in repair, he finds himself in possession not only of his original capital, but also of a surplus or profit, it is a proof that the farm produces more than the cost of its rent and cultivation. The case is similar in all employment of capital. The manufacturer who lays it out in the purchase of raw materials, and in paying the labour which is afterwards expended on them; or the merchant whose capital is employed in the purchase of goods for sale, could not carry on their respective occupations without first laying out their capital: but it is returned to them, together with the profits that have accrued by its employment. Each of these occupations bring in more than is laid out, but none of them could be carried on without a capital.

caroline.

Oh yes; I recollect the labourer produces for his employer more than he receives from him as wages, and this surplus is the source of his master’s profit; but if the farmer had not wherewithal to pay his labourers’ wages, he could not set them to work.

It is then upon the capital which a farmer employs on his land, that he calculates his profits?

mrs. b.

Yes. Let us suppose that a farmer employs a capital of the value of 3000l. on his farm: he may, possibly, after deducting the rent and the expenses of cultivation, make ten per cent. or 300l. profit.

caroline.

That is to say, that at the end of the year he would find himself 300l. richer than he was before?

mrs. b.

Provided that he had spent none of his gains during the course of the year. But as his family are commonly maintained by the produce of the farm, he will at the end of the year be actually richer or poorer according to the proportion which his domestic expenses have borne to his gains. But these cannot be considered as a deduction from his profits, as the expense of the maintenance of his family must fall upon his revenue in whatever way it is obtained.

caroline.

And what is the usual rent paid for such a farm?

mrs. b.

It depends in a great measure upon the extent and condition of the land. A considerable farm, in a good state of cultivation, and possessing the advantage of a fertile soil, may not require a capital of more than 3000l. to carry it on; whilst a farm of only half that extent, if in a bad condition, and with an ungrateful soil, may require as large a capital to be laid out on it. But a very different rent would be paid for these two farms.

caroline.

The large productive farm will naturally pay a higher rent than the smaller ill-conditioned one?

mrs. b.

And the difference of rent will equalise the profits which a farmer would derive from employing the same quantity of capital on each of these farms. Taking an average of the state of culture, a farm which requires 4000l. capital may pay a rent of about 200l., the share of the farmer being nearly double that of the landlord.

caroline.

You said in our last conversation, that the rent of land had lately been estimated as low as one fifth of the produce. A farm, such as you have described, would therefore yield produce worth 1000l., in which case the profits of the farmer would be above three times as great as those of the landlord.

mrs. b.

You forget that from the total or gross produce must be deducted not only the rent, but also the expenses of cultivation; these are generally estimated at one half of the produce, after deducting the rent; there will remain, therefore, 400l., which is 10 per cent. profit on the 4000l. capital employed on the farm. If from this sum the farmer saves 50l., he may lay it out in the improvement of his land, which will render the produce more plentiful the following year; an advantage of which he will derive the full benefit, as his rent will remain the same to the end of the lease.

caroline.

But on granting a new lease, the proprietor, I suppose, would expect a higher rent for a farm which had been thus improved?

mrs. b.

No doubt; it is therefore desirable that land should not be let on short leases, because farmers would have no inducement to improve the condition of their land without the prospect of reaping the benefit it for some years to come.

caroline.

But towards the end of the lease, this objection would remain in force?

mrs. b.

True: and to prevent this, farmers generally obtain a renewal of their leases some time before they are elapsed. Besides, it would be contrary to the interest of the landlord to deal hardly with his tenants on such occasions, as it would discourage them from improving their farms; an advantage in which the landlord must eventually partake.

In Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire, and some other parts of the country, it is not customary to grant leases: the tenants hold their farms at the will of the landlord. There is, however, a sort of conventional agreement between the parties, that except in cases of misconduct, the farmer shall not be removed, nor have his rent raised during a certain period. Some people are of opinion that this mode of letting land is preferable to granting a lease; because they say the industry of the farmer is stimulated both by hope and fear; the hope of profit from his labours, and the fear of being turned out should he neglect the improvement of his farm: but in arguing thus they do not consider that this fear must operate in two ways; for in proportion to the improvement which the farmer makes, so is the temptation to the landlord, if he be needy or illiberal, to turn him out, or to exact an increase of rent. In short, there can be no greater check to industry than the insecurity of the profits it produces; and how can a farmer feel his interests secure whilst he is dependent on the will of his landlord?

caroline.

Besides, though a farmer may repose great confidence in the character of the individual whose land he holds, the uncertainty of life renders him dependent also upon his heir, and this may perhaps be some wild extravagant youth, who, without regard to his ultimate interest, will exact the highest rents from his tenants.

mrs. b.

Security is, no doubt, the most important point for the encouragement of industry; and the greatest, indeed the only encouragement which government can give to agriculture, is to secure to the farmer all the power over the soil that is necessary for its perfect cultivation, and to ensure to him the profits of every improvement he may make. I will read you a passage from Paley on this subject: —

“The principal expedient by which laws can promote the encouragement of agriculture, is to adjust the laws of property as nearly as possible by the following rules: 1st, To give to the occupier all the power over the soil which is necessary for its perfect cultivation. 2dly, To assign the whole profit of every improvement to the persons by whom it is carried on. Now it is indifferent to the public in whose hand this power of the land resides, if it be rightly used; it matters not to whom the land belongs if it be well cultivated.

“Agriculture is discouraged by every constitution of landed property which lets in those who have no concern in the improvement to a participation of the profit. This objection is applicable to all such customs of manors as subject the proprietor, upon the death of the lord or tenant, or the alienation of the estate, to a fine apportioned to the improved value of the land. But of all institutions which are in this way adverse to cultivation and improvement, none is so noxious as that of tithes. When years perhaps of care and toil have matured an improvement, when the husbandman sees his new crops ripening to his industry, the moment he is ready to put his sickle to the grain he finds himself compelled to divide his harvest with a stranger. Tithes are a tax not only upon industry, which feeds mankind, but upon that species of exertion which it is the aim of all wise laws to cherish and promote.”

caroline.

It is indeed much to be regretted that a provision for the clergy should not be raised in some other manner.

mrs. b.

Since all right of property is derived from legal institutions, the clergy have an equal right to their tithes as the landed proprietors to their estates; yet I believe that few of the clergy venture to levy tithes to the extent of their rights, for they cannot do it without incurring the ill-will and opposition of their parishioners. The system must therefore certainly be defective which appears to dispossess one man of the fruits of his industry, whilst it will not allow another to take, without exciting vexation and disturbance, that which the law has assigned to him as his property.

caroline.

And this opposition of interests must be prejudicial both to religion and morals, by creating an endless source of contention between the clergy and their parishioners; — but, Mrs. B., since the price of raw produce is regulated by the expense of producing it in soils of the worst quality under cultivation, should not tithes be considered as a part of that expense? The occupier is bound by the law of the land to pay a tenth of the produce to the clergy, as much as he is bound by the law of nature to sow the seed for raising that produce: it appears to me, therefore, that both should enter equally into the expenses of production; and if so, it is the purchaser or consumer who, by paying a higher price for agricultural produce, defrays the expense of tithes.

mrs. b.

This point has been ably discussed by Mr. Ricardo; and he proves, that if all the lands of a country were subject to this tax, it would, as you observe, increase the price of raw produce, and consequently be paid by the consumer. But in a country like this, where a considerable part of the land is tithe-free, and Scotland wholly so, the price of raw produce is in a great degree regulated by the expense at which that portion of it which is raised on tithe-free lands can be brought to market: for the cultivators of these lands can afford to sell their produce cheaper than those whose lands are burdened with it.

caroline.

Then the price of raw produce in this country is regulated by the expenses of production on the worst soil free of tithe?

mrs. b.

Not altogether so. It is in some measure a question of proportion between the quantity of land which pays tithe and the quantity which is tithe-free.

caroline.

But so far as the price of raw produce is regulated by the expense of raising it on the worst soils under cultivation that are tithe-free, the burden of tithe falls on the cultivator of the other lands.

mrs. b.

If he is at the same time the proprietor it does; but if he only farms the land, he will give a higher rent for that which is free of tithe than for that which is charged with this tax. So far, therefore, as the price of raw produce is regulated by the expense of raising it on tithe-free lands, the burden of tithe on lands which are subjected to this tax falls on the landlord.

caroline.

Since it is so desirable for the cultivator to have unlimited power over the soil, I should have thought that it would have been particularly advantageous for landed proprietors to cultivate their own estates, instead of letting them to farmers; and yet it is a common observation that gentlemen make the least profits by agriculture. This is the more unaccountable, because being both landlord and farmer, the proprietor must receive the two incomes comprised in the produce of the land, — rent and profit.

mrs. b.

But recollect that he also employs two capitals, in order to make the two incomes; the one to purchase the land, the other to cultivate it. The reason why gentlemen who cultivate their own estates do not usually make profits equal to those of a common farmer, is either because they do not understand the business so well, or that they do not bestow the same care and attention upon it. The common farmer usually devotes the whole of his time to his farm, either in the capacity of bailiff or that of labourer; while the gentleman farmer never earns the wages of labour, and generally leaves the important office of bailiff to be performed by a substitute; therefore, were the gentleman to raise as plentiful crops as the farmer they would be produced at a more considerable expense, and his gains would be proportionally diminished. As to the value of the rent, it must be reckoned independently, as he receives it in his quality of landlord.

caroline.

It would then probably increase the agricultural produce of the country, if gentlemen were always to let their land instead of farming it themselves.

mrs. b.

On the contrary, I believe it to be very desirable that some few gentlemen, in different parts of the country, should cultivate their own estates. Being generally men of greater information than common farmers, they are more willing to make experiments, and adopt any new mode in the various agricultural processes which may appear eligible. Besides, the land is frequently better improved in the hands of the proprietor than in those of a labouring farmer; as the proprietor has usually the advantage of a larger capital to lay out on his land, and then he is not restrained by the apprehension that his rent will be ultimately raised in proportion to the additional value which he gives to the land.

Townsend, in his Travels in Spain, has made some very judicious observations on English gentlemen farmers.

“By residing,” he says, “on their own estates, they not only spend money among their tenants, which by its circulation sets every thing in motion, and becomes productive of new wealth, but their amusement is to make improvements. By planting, draining, and breaking up lands which would have remained unprofitable, they try new experiments, which their tenants could not afford, and which, if successful, are soon adopted by their neighbours. They introduce the best breed of cattle, the best implements of husbandry, and the best mode of agriculture; they excite emulation, they promote the mending of the roads, and secure good police in the villages around them. Being present, they prevent their tenants from being plundered by their stewards: they encourage those who are sober, diligent, and skilful; and they get rid of those who would impoverish their estates. Their farmers, too, finding a ready market for the produce of the soil, become rich, increase their stock, and by their growing wealth make the land more productive than it was before.”

caroline.

You have enumerated so many advantages on the opposite side of the question, that I begin to think that it would be more beneficial to the country that all landed proprietors should cultivate their own estates; for though they might not be great gainers by it themselves, yet the country would derive all the advantage from the improvement of the soil, and the introduction of scientific agriculture.

mrs. b.

A few gentlemen farmers in each county will be sufficient for the latter purpose. Were it common for proprietors to farm their own estates, I am convinced that it would be extremely injurious to agricultural produce; for no command of capital, no scientific knowledge, can, in a general point of view, compensate for the keen and vigilant eye of the industrious farmer, who sees that every thing is turned to the best account.

caroline.

I should suggest as a medium between these two modes, that a landed proprietor should neither farm his estate nor let it, but employ an agent to cultivate it for him, whose salary should be proportioned to the produce which he raises on the land.

mrs. b.

Such, I believe, was the species of tenure by which farms were held by the vassals of the nobles when they were first emancipated from slavery, and that military services were no longer, as in feudal times, considered as a sufficient remuneration for the occupancy of land. To give the cultivator any interest in the produce he raises, acts certainly as a spur to his industry; but it is one much less powerful than the security and independence of the leasehold-farmer, who, after paying a stipulated rent, enjoys the whole advantage of the efforts of his industry.

Townsend informs us, that most of the great estates in Spain are held in administration, that is, cultivated by agents or stewards for the account of the proprietor; and it is principally to this cause that he attributes the low state of agriculture. “No country,” he observes, “can suffer more than Spain for want of a rich tenantry, and perhaps none in this respect can rival England. We find universally that wealth produces wealth; but then to produce it from the earth, a due proportion of it must be in the pocket of the farmer. Many gentlemen among us, either for amusement, or with a view to gain, have given attention to agriculture, and have occupied much land; they have produced luxuriant crops, and have introduced good husbandry; but I apprehend few can boast of having made much profit, and most are ready to confess that they have suffered some loss. If, then, residing on their own estates, with all their attention, they are losers, how great would be the loss if in distant provinces they employed only stewards to plough, to sow, to sell, and to eat up the produce of their lands?”

There are, however, in warmer climates, some species of produce, which from their peculiar nature farmers would not venture to undertake to cultivate on their own account, and proprietors would be unwilling to trust entirely to their management. Such is the culture of the vine and the olive, plants which require the utmost care and attention during a number of years before they begin to yield any fruit; and farmers are seldom sufficiently opulent to engage in a species of husbandry the profits of which are so long protracted. On the other hand, as these plants may be very materially injured by being allowed to bear fruit either prematurely or too luxuriantly, and as the interest of the farmer looks rather to immediate than remote profits, it is not considered safe to trust such plantations entirely to his care. Vineyards and olive-grounds are therefore, I am informed, cultivated by the farmer in half account with the proprietor; who shares with him equally the expenses and the profits. This is called the Métayer system of cultivation: it was formerly very common on the Continent for all kinds of produce, and still prevails in Italy, where the land is so extremely subdivided, that the Métayer farmers, frequently subsisting upon half the produce of not more than five or six acres of land, are seldom superior in condition to our peasantry. In France and Switzerland this system of farming is confined almost exclusively to the culture of the vine and the olive. But how requisite soever the system may be for particular plantations, the usual mode in this country of granting leases, I conceive to be, not only most advantageous to the farmer, but ultimately so to the landed proprietor, who can procure the highest rent for the land best cultivated; and it is also most beneficial to the country by yielding the greatest produce. But in Spain this mode could not be adopted for want of an affluent tenantry. The wealth of the country is chiefly engrossed by the nobles and clergy; there is a total deficiency of yeomen who cultivate their own land; and the middling classes are few in number, and so destitute of capital that they are incapable of taking a lease of land.

caroline.

I often wish that the property of land was more subdivided in this country. How delightful it would be to see every cottage surrounded by a few acres belonging to the cottager, which would enable him to keep a cow, a few pigs, and partly at least to support his family on the produce of his little farm. Do you recollect Goldsmith’s lines? —

• “A time there was, ere England’s griefs began,
• When every rood of ground maintain’d its man:
• But now, alas! . . . . . . . . . .
• Along the lawn where scatter’d hamlets rose,
• Unwieldy wealth and cumb’rous pomp repose,
• And every want to luxury allied.”

mrs. b.

I shall point out to you a passage in Arthur Young’s Travels in France, in which this question is discussed.

carolinereads.

“I saw nothing respectable in small properties, except most unremitting industry. Indeed it is necessary to impress on the reader’s mind that though the husbandry I met with in a great variety of instances was as bad as can well be conceived, yet the industry of the possessors was so conspicuous and meritorious that no commendations would be too great for it. It was sufficient to prove that property in land is the most active instigator to severe and incessant labour. And this truth is of such force and extent that I know no way so sure of carrying tillage to a mountain-top as by permitting the adjoining villagers to acquire it in property; in fact we see that in the mountains of Languedoc they have conveyed earth in baskets on their backs to form a soil where nature has denied it.”

mrs. b.

Land that is too poor to afford a rent, you will recollect, may still yield sufficiently to pay the proprietor for its cultivation; it is therefore the property of such soils alone which will ensure their being cultivated. — But go on.

carolinereads.

“But great inconveniency arises in small properties from the universal division which takes place after the death of the proprietor. Thus I have seen some farms which originally consisted of 40 or 50 acres reduced to half an acre, with a family as much attached to it as if it were an hundred acres. The population flowing from this extreme division is often but the multiplication of wretchedness. Men increase beyond the demand of towns and manufactures, and the consequence is distress, and numbers dying of diseases arising from insufficient nourishment. Hence small properties much divided form the greatest source of misery that can be conceived.

“In England small properties are exceedingly rare; our labouring poor are justly emulous of being the proprietors of their cottages, and that scrap of land which forms the garden; but they seldom think of buying land enough to employ themselves. A man that has two or three hundred pounds with us does not buy a field, but stocks a farm. In every part of England in which I have been, there is no comparison between the case of a day-labourer and of a very little farmer: we have no people that fare so ill and work so hard as the latter. No labour is so wretchedly performed and so dear as that of hired hands accustomed to work for themselves; there is a disgust and listlessness that cannot escape an intelligent observer, and nothing but real distress will drive such little proprietors to work at all for others. Can any thing be apparently so absurd as a strong hearty man walking some miles and losing a day’s work in order to sell a dozen of eggs or a chicken, the value of which would not be equal to the labour of conveying it, were the people usefully employed?”

caroline.

This reminds me of a poor woman in Savoy, who kept a few cows among the mountains two or three leagues distant from Geneva. Having no other market for her milk, she carried it regularly every day to that town for sale; thus the greater part of her time was spent upon the road, whilst it might certainly have been much more profitably employed had she been dairy-maid to some considerable farmer, who, having milk enough to turn it to butter and cheese, could in that state send it wholesale to market.

mrs. b.

The inconvenience you allude to has of late years been obviated in many of the villages of Switzerland, especially in the neighbourhood of Geneva, by the introduction of a peculiar species of public dairy establishments, which, I understand, originated in the plains of Lombardy. To these dairies, called Fruitières, the farmers in the vicinity bring their daily stock of milk, which is converted into butter and cheese, and returned to them in that form, the establishment retaining only such a portion as is necessary to defray its expenses.

There are also considerable dairy establishments in the Swiss mountains, but these are commonly private property; the proprietor of the mountain-pasture usually hiring cows of the neighbouring farmers, who are commonly repaid in the manufactured produce of the dairy.

Small landed properties are extremely common in Switzerland; and I confess that the observations I have made during a long residence in that country have not led me to form the same conclusions as Arthur Young. When a farm is insufficient for the maintenance of more than a single family, the law which enjoins an equal division of the property after the death of the father, among his children, is easily evaded; the children, instead of waiting for that event to parcel out the land into portions, which would be nearly without value from their minuteness, agree that one of the brothers shall succeed to the landed property, and pay to the other children an equivalent for their share; this is done either immediately on their coming to the inheritance, or by instalments, as circumstances will admit. In the mean time, those who have thus sold their birth-right learn some trade, or other mode of gaining a livelihood.

In the Canton of Berne it is usually the youngest son who remains at home with his father, and succeeds to the estate when it is too small to be divided.

There are also many districts in France, particularly in Burgundy, where farms of about ten acres are known to have existed to the same extent for above a century and a half; — the theorist, according to an apparently unanswerable calculation, would have reduced these farms to a few square yards during such a period of time; but human nature is very ingenious in devising methods for eluding or softening the effects of a law which has an unfavourable tendency.

caroline.

I heard a gentleman who is recently returned from France say, that three servants, whom he had hired at Marseilles, had all been men of landed property; but that the portion of inheritance to each had been so small that they had disposed of it to other members of their families, in order to hire themselves as servants.

mrs. b.

When this or any other cause prevents the extreme partition of landed property, the principal objections to small properties are removed; and the disadvantage arising from deficiency of capital may be in a great measure compensated by the stimulus given to the industry of a man who cultivates his own land. It appears to me that no means can be better calculated to develope the faculties of the peasantry, to inspire them with that foresight, and inculcate those prudential habits which we have observed to be so eminently essential to their welfare, than by their becoming possessors of a little landed property. This system is especially adapted to mountainous countries, where the strongest motives to industry are required, to induce men to climb the steep rock in order to cultivate a small patch of earth favourably situated on its acclivity.

Neither can I agree with Arthur Young as to the disinclination of small proprietors to work for hire. In the Canton de Vaud, it is usual for the French-border peasantry, after having got in their own harvests, to descend the mountains of the Jura and assist in the labours of the Vaudois: there they meet the Savoyards, whose crops, situated in the elevated valleys of the Alps, are not yet ripe; all parties unite their labours, apparently in a most joyous manner, and I am inclined to think that the prospect of receiving a pecuniary reward gives them an additional stimulus. Those who usually work without pay feel a particular gratification in acquiring a little ready cash, and what they gain in this way goes to their clothing and a few little luxuries: — the shops at Geneva are thronged after harvest time, both with French and Savoyard peasants, who are laying out their earnings.

caroline.

I have heard that the condition of the lower agricultural classes in France has been very much improved by the sale of the national domains, at the commencement of the Revolution in that country; that it has enabled the small farmers and many of the peasantry to become landed proprietors, and thus to cultivate their own land; and that this subdivision of property has proved so beneficial, that, notwithstanding all the evils they have since had to contend with, they are yet in a very thriving condition.

mrs. b.

By the sale of the national domains very small proprietors, whose land was scarcely equal to the maintenance of their families, were enabled to enlarge their farms. The ill consequences arising from an extreme subdivision of land would thus be remedied. But we must recollect, that at the commencement of the French Revolution the restrictive and oppressive laws which checked the progress of every branch of industry were abolished; this gave vigour to agricultural pursuits. Then the sale of confiscated lands, at a period when its tenure was considered as extremely insecure, rendered them so cheap, that it was almost as easy to purchase an estate in France as in America, with the additional advantage of its being already in a state of cultivation. These circumstances all concurred to improve the condition of the small landed proprietors. With a view of amassing little capitals to lay out upon their new domains, they have acquired habits of industry and economy, and such habits are of themselves a treasure to a country. At the same time it must be admitted, that very serious disadvantages result from a great division of landed property, even though the extreme division we have alluded to should be avoided. The small landed proprietor is deficient both in capital and in education: he has not the means of laying out money in the improvement of his land; and his ignorance generally renders him averse to any new process of agriculture, even though it should not be attended with additional expense. His land is therefore cultivated in a very inferior manner; he is frequently obliged to sell his crops at an unprofitable period, and in seasons of distress he is nearly without resource.

caroline.

And are there the same objections to small leasehold farms?

mrs. b.

In a great measure. It is poverty alone which induces a man to take a very small farm; and a poor farmer cannot make those exertions which are requisite for good husbandry. The profits of a considerable farmer enable him to improve his land; those of a small one are entirely consumed in the maintenance of his family; his land is therefore badly cultivated, and he has little or no surplus produce to send to market.

caroline.

What sized farms do you suppose to be most beneficial to a country?

mrs. b.

That must vary extremely, according to the local situation, the nature of the climate and soil, and the capital of the farmer. In Belgium, which is esteemed one of the best cultivated countries in Europe, I am informed that the farms are upon an average about 40 acres; and in Tuscany, another spot remarkable for the excellence of its agriculture, the farms seldom exceed 10 or 15 acres, all cultivated upon the Métayer system; but in this favoured climate the fields yield such abundant crops that the produce approaches more nearly to that of a Belgic farm than you would imagine from the difference of their extent.

In this country there is, I think, a strong predilection in favour of considerable farms. Were I to give an opinion, I should say that a farm should never be so large that the farmer cannot superintend the whole of the cultivation himself; nor so small as not to enable him to keep up that farming stock establishment necessary for the most perfect husbandry. But this is a point which may be safely left to regulate itself. I do not apprehend that this country can suffer by the different size of farms; for there are very few small landed properties; and as it is the interest of the landlord to draw the greatest possible income from his estate, he will let his farms of such dimensions as he conceives his tenant will be able to turn to the best account. To a very opulent farmer he may be induced to grant a lease of a large farm; whilst he will refuse that of a single field to a cottager who would exhaust instead of improving the soil.

The advantages of considerable farms have been so ably delineated in one of the numbers of the Edinburgh Review that I shall read you the passage: —

“It is quite evident that some of the most valuable mechanical inventions could never have come into general use if there had been no farms of more than 100 or 150 acres; that no great improvement could have been made in our live stock; that there would have been still less room than there is at present for the division of labour, and for its accumulation for the purpose of dispatch at particular seasons; that there would not have been that systematic arrangement by which every different quality of soil is made to produce those crops, and to feed those sorts of animals for which it is best calculated; that it would have been almost impracticable to practise convertible husbandry at all, which, by combining tillage and pasturage on the same farm, contributes so powerfully to sustain and augment the fertility of the soil; that the surplus produce for the supply of towns would have been inconsiderable at all times, and from the general poverty of small tenants brought to market in too great abundance in the early part of the season, instead of apportioning it over the whole year; and in bad seasons there would have been no surplus at all: — and that, in short, as no person of capital or enterprise would ever have entered into the profession, our extensive moors and morasses, and indeed all our inferior soils, must have remained in their natural state, or been partially and most unprofitably improved under the delegated management of great proprietors.”

It is now, I think, high time to conclude the subject of agriculture; and it is necessary to say only a few words on Mining, a branch of industry which I have placed next to agriculture, on account of its analogy to it, in affording a rent.

Mines, like the surface of the earth, yielding different quantities of produce according to their respective degrees of richness, all those which are not of the poorest quality must afford a rent.

caroline.

The price of the metals, then, like that of corn, must be regulated by the expense of producing it from the last mines opened?

mrs. b.

Your observation applies, with more correctness, to the produce of the surface of the earth; the land last cultivated is generally the poorest, or labours under other disadvantages, which have prevented its being sooner brought under the plough; but mines being less open to observation, new mines are not unfrequently discovered, which yield more metal than others previously worked. You should rather say, therefore, that the price of metal is regulated by the expense of extracting it from the poorest mines now worked.

The same laws apply to coal-pits, which, notwithstanding the great assistance derived from machinery, give work to several hundred thousand labourers who earn their maintenance, besides the profits of their employer and the rent of the proprietor; and this rent is in general more considerable than that of agricultural land, as the produce of coal-pits is more valuable than that of the soil.

caroline.

The mines containing metals are, I suppose, of still greater value?

mrs. b.

Yes, and their rent proportionally higher; but the profits of the capitalist who rents them, and of the labourers who work them, are not greater. As the value of a mine, however, depends upon the quantity as well as on the quality of the metal it affords, it frequently happens that a lead-mine will fetch a higher rent than a silver-mine. The expense of working coal-pits is less than that of metallic mines. The coal requires nothing more than to be extracted from the earth: but with the metals the labour is much more complicated; they must be separated from the ore in the furnace, and undergo a variety of processes before they are fit for the purposes of art.

The risk and uncertainty attending mining is greater than that of any other employment of capital; and accordingly we find both larger fortunes made and more people ruined in that than in any other branch of industry.

caroline.

The chance of gain, then, compensates for the risk of loss; but upon the whole I suppose the profits are similar to those derived from other modes of employing capital?

mrs. b.

I am inclined to believe the profits of mining to be rather below the common standard. In all hazardous enterprises men are prone to trust to their good fortune, and generally consider the chances more in their favour than an accurate calculation would warrant. This is evinced by the readiness with which men venture to stake their money in the lottery, though it is well known that the chances of gain are decidedly against them. A mine is a more advantageous lottery no doubt than that of government, but it contains a prodigious number of blanks, and only a few great prizes. Sanguine hopes and expectations in some measure supply the place of actual gains; yet if the average profits of mining should at any time fall so low as to discourage the spirit of enterprise, and diminish the requisite supply of metals, their price would rise until it had brought back a sufficient capital to that branch of industry.

I have mentioned fisheries as a source of employment for capital, and a means of affording a revenue. Very large capitals are engaged in the whale, the cod, and the herring fisheries, besides those smaller ones which supply the country with fresh fish. But as the sea in which these fisheries are carried on is not susceptible of becoming private property, they yield no rent. There are, however, some considerable inland river fisheries which belong to individuals, and bring in a rent. No fewer than forty-one different salmon fisheries upon the river Tweed are rented for several thousands a-year; and I am informed that the Duke of Gordon lets a salmon fishery on the Spey for 7000l. a-year. In the Scotch fisheries it is very common to take four or five score of salmon at a draught. In England there are also considerable salmon fisheries in the Tyne, the Trent, the Severn, and the Thames.

caroline.

The rent of fisheries depends, I suppose, upon some rivers abounding more with fish than others.

mrs. b.

Yes; all rent is derived from the same principle, the lesser quantity of labour required to produce the commodity in some situations than in others.

We have already noticed the manner in which a revenue is obtained from manufactures; what further observations we have to make on this branch of industry we shall defer till we enter on the subject of trade, with which it is so naturally connected.

caroline.

And will that be the subject of our next conversation?

mrs. b.

No; we have yet many general remarks to make upon revenue. And it will be necessary also, before we turn our attention to trade or commerce, that you should understand the nature and use of money, without a knowledge of which it would be extremely difficult to render the subject perspicuous.