Principles of Political Economy Part 4

[Footnote 157-3: The French testamentary tax was on an amount,

In 1835, of 552 mill. francs moveable property and 984 " immoveable.

In 1853, of 820 " francs moveable property and 1,176 " immoveable.

In 1860, of 1,179 " francs moveable property and 1,545 " immoveable.

so that the preponderance of immoveable property const.i.tuted a converging series of 78, 43, and 31 per cent. (_Parieu._) In North America, with its great unoccupied territory, the reverse is the case. The census of 1850 gave a moveable property of 36 per cent.; that of 1860 of only 30 per cent.

According to _Dubost_, the rent of land in Algeria was 80 per cent., a gross product of only 10-15 francs per _hectare_; in Corsica, 66 per cent., a gross yield of from 30-35 per cent.; in the Department du Nord, 17.5-24 per cent., a gross yield of from 500-740 francs. (Journal des Economistes, Juin, 1870, 336 ff.)]

[Footnote 157-4: The repeated sifting of the bran (_mouture economique_) had great influence in this respect. In France, in the sixteenth century, a _setier_ of wheat gave only 144 pounds of bread. In 1767, according to _Malouin_, L'Art du Bonlanger, it gave 192 pounds. It now gives from 223 to 240 pounds. The gain in barley is still greater; the _setier_ gives 115 pounds of flour, formerly only 58. (_Roquefort_, Histoire de la Vie Privee des Francais, I, 72 ff.

_Beckmann_, Beitr. zur Gesch. der Erfind., II, 54.)]

[Footnote 157-5: In the beginning of the eighteenth century, the counties in the neighborhood of London addressed a pet.i.tion to Parliament against the extension of the building of turnpike roads which caused their rents to decline, from the compet.i.tion of distant districts. (_Adam Smith_, Wealth of Nat., I, ch. 11, 1.) Compare _Sir J. Stewart_, Principles, I, ch. 10. Improvements in transportation which affect the longest and shortest roads to a market in an absolutely equal degree, as, for instance, the bridging of a river very near the market, leave rent unaffected. (_von Mangoldt_, V. W. L., 480.)]

[Footnote 157-6: _Malthus_, Principles, 231 ff. If the laboring cla.s.s were to become satisfied with living on potatoes instead of meat and bread as. .h.i.therto, rents would immediately and greatly fall, since the necessities of the people might then be obtained from a much smaller superficies. But after a time, the consequent increase in population might lead to a much higher rent than before; since a great deal of land too unfertile for the cultivation of corn might be sown with potatoes, and thus the limits of cultivation be reached much later.]

[Footnote 157-7: In France, between 1797 and 1847, the average price of wheat did not rise at all. _Hipp. Pa.s.sy_ mentions pieces of land which produced scarcely 12 hectolitres of wheat, but which now produce 20--an increased yield of 170 francs, attended by an increase in the cost of only 75 francs. (Journal des Economistes, 15 Oct., 1848.) Moreover, it may be that a not unimportant part of modern rises in the price of corn may be accounted for by the better quality of the corn caused by higher farming. (_Inama Sternbeg_, Gesch. der Preise, 10 seq.) Such facts, readily explainable by _Ricardo's_ theory, remove the objection of _Carey_, _Banfield_ and others, that the condition of the cla.s.ses who own no land has, since the middle ages, unquestionably improved. Political Economy would be simply a theory of human degradation and impoverishment, if the law of rent was not counteracted by opposing causes. (_Rsler_, Grundsatze, 210.) According to _Berens_, Krit.

Dogmengeschichte, 213, the actual highness of rent is to be accounted for by the antagonism between the "soil-law (_Bodengesetz_) of the limited power of vegetation," and the "progress of civilization" (but surely only to the extent that the latter improves the art of agriculture). Thus, too, _John Stuart Mill_, Principles, I, ch. 12; II, ch. 11, 15 seq.; III, ch. 4 seq.; IV, ch. 2 ff.]

[Footnote 157-8: Thus, for instance, drainage works which, where properly directed, have paid an interest of from 25 to 70 per cent. per annum in England and Belgium on the capital invested.]

SECTION CLVIII.

HISTORY OF RENT.--IN PERIODS OF DECLINE.

If a nation's economy be declining, in consequence of war for instance, the disastrous influence hereof on rent may be r.e.t.a.r.ded by a still greater fall in wages or in the profit on capital. But it can be hardly r.e.t.a.r.ded beyond a certain point.[158-1] As a rule, the decline of rents begins to be felt by the least fertile and least advantageously situated land.[158-2] [158-3]

[Footnote 158-1: "The falling of rents an infallible sign of the decay of wealth." (_Locke._) In England, in 1450, land was bought at "14 years' purchase;" i. e., with a capital = 14 times the yearly rent paid, in 1470, at only "10 years'

purchase." (_Eden_, State of the Poor, III, App., I, x.x.xV.) This was, doubtless, a consequence of the civil war raging in the meantime. The American war (1775-82) depressed the price of land in England to "23 years' purchase,"

whereas it had previously stood at 32. (_A. Young._) The rent of land, in many places in France, declined from 10,000 to 2,000 livres, on account of the many wars during Louis XIV.'s reign. (_Madame de Sevigne's_ Lettres, 25 Dec, 1689.) Even in 1677, it was only one-half of its former amount (_King_, Life of Locke, I, 129.) The whole Bekes county (_comitat_) in Hungary was sold for 150,000 florins under Charles VI.; after the unfortunate war with France.

(_Mailath_, Oesterreich, Gesch., IV, 523.) Compare _Cantillon_, Nature du Commerce, 248. In Cologne, a new house was sold in the spring of 1848 for 1,000 thalers, the site of which alone had cost 3,000 thalers; and there are six building lots which formerly cost over 3,000 thalers, now valued at only 100 thalers. (_von Reden_, Statist.

Zeitschr., 1848, 366.) On the other hand, Napoleon's war very much enhanced English rents (_Porter_, Progress of the Nation, II, 1, 150 ff.), because it affected England's national husbandry princ.i.p.ally by hindering the importation of the means of subsistence. (_Pa.s.sy_, Journal des Economistes, X, 354.)]

[Footnote 158-2: Thus the price of lands, in Mecklenburg, between 1817 and 1827, fell 30 to 40 per cent. in the least fertile quarters; in the better, from 15 to 20 per cent.

(_von Thunen_, in _Jacob_, Tracts relating to the Corn Trade, 40, 187.) _Per contra_, see Hundes.h.a.gen Landwirthsch.

Gewerbelehre, 1839, 64 seq., and _Carey_, Principles, I, 354.]

[Footnote 158-3: The average rent in England was, in 1815, 17s. 3d. In the counties, it was highest in Middles.e.x, 38s.

9d.; in Rutland, 38s. 2d.; Leicester, 27s. 3d.; lowest in Westmoreland, 9s. 1d. In Wales, the average was 7s. 10d.; highest in Anglesea, 19s.; lowest in Merioneth, 4s. 8d. In Scotland the average was 5s. 1d.; highest, Midlothian, 24s. 6d.; lowest, Highland Caithness, Cromarthy, Inverness and Rosse, from 1s. 1d. to 1s. 5d.; Orkneys, 8d.; Sutherland, 6d.; Shetlands, 3d. In Ireland, the average was 12s. 9d.; highest in Dublin, 20s. 1d.; lowest, Donegal, 6s. (_McCulloch_, Stat., I, 544 ff.; Yearbook of general Information, 1843, 193.) In France, _Chaptal_, De l'Industrie Fr., 1819, I, 209 ff., estimates the average yield per _hectare_ at 28 francs; in the Department of the Seine, 216; Nord, 69.56; Lower Seine, 67.85; in the upper Alps, 6.2; in the lower Alps, 5.99: in the Landes, 6.25. While in the Landes, only 20 francs a _hectare_ are frequently paid, the purchase price in the neighboring Medoc is sometimes 25,000 francs. (Journal des Economistes, Jan. 15, 1851.) In Belgium, the average price of agricultural land is 52.46; in East Flanders, 53.19; in Namur, 29.24. (_Heuschling_, Statistique, 77.)]

SECTION CLIX.

HISTORY OF RENT.--RENT AND THE GENERAL GOOD.

We so frequently hear rent called the result of the monopoly[159-1] of land, and an undeserved tribute paid by the whole people to landowners, that it is high time we should call attention to the common advantage it is to all. There is evidently danger that, with the rapid growth of population, the ma.s.s of mankind should yield to the temptation of gradually confining themselves to the satisfaction of coa.r.s.e, palpable wants; that all refined leisure, which makes life and the troubles that attend it worth enduring, and which is the indispensable foundation of all permanent progress and all higher activity, should be gradually surrendered. (See -- 145.) Here rent const.i.tutes a species of reserve fund, which grows greater in proportion as these dangers impend by reason of the decline of wages and of the profit of capital, or interest.[159-2] Besides, precisely in times when rent is high, the sale and divisibility of landed estates act as a beneficent reaction against the monopoly of land, which is always akin to the condition of things created by rent.

But it is of immeasurably greater importance that high rents deter the people from abusing the soil in an anti-economic way; that they compel men to settle about the centers of commerce, to improve the means of transportation, and under certain circ.u.mstances to engage in the work of colonization; while, otherwise, idleness would soon reconcile itself to the heaping together of large swarms of men.[159-3] The antic.i.p.ation of rent may render possible the construction of railroads, which enable the land to yield that very antic.i.p.ated rent.

[Footnote 159-1: "Rent is a tax levied by the landowners as monopolists." (_Hopkins_, Great Britain for the last forty Years, 1834.) For a very remarkable armed and successful resistance of farmers in the state of New York to the claims for rent of the Rensselaer family, represented by the government, see _Wappaus_ Nord Amerika, 734.]

[Footnote 159-2: _Malthus_, Additions to the Essay on Population, 1817, III, ch. 10; compare also _Verri_, Meditazioni, XXIV, 3. The Physiocrates call the landowners _cla.s.se disponible_, since, as they may live without labor, they are best adapted to military service, the civil service, etc., either in person or by defraying the expenses of those engaged in them. (_Turgot_, Sur la Formation etc., -- 15; Questions sur la Chine, 5.)]

[Footnote 159-3: Well discussed by _Schaffle_, Theorie, 65, 72, 83. _Malthus_ considers the capital and labor expended in agriculture more productive than any other, because they produce not only the usual interest and wages, but also rent. If, therefore, the manufacturing and commercial profit of a country = 12 per cent., and the profit of capital employed in agriculture = 10 per cent., a corn law which compelled the capital engaged in manufactures and commerce to be devoted to agriculture would be productive of advantage to the national husbandry in general, if the increase in rent should amount to about 3 per cent. (On the Effects of the Corn Laws and of a Rise or Fall in the Price of Corn on the Agriculture and the general Wealth of the Country, 1815. The Grounds of an Opinion on the Policy of Restricting the Importation of Foreign Corn, 1815.) Compare _supra_, -- 55, and the detailed rectification in _Roscher_, Nationalokonomik des Ackerbaues, etc., -- 159 ff.]

CHAPTER III.

WAGES.

SECTION CLX.

THE PRICE OF COMMON LABOR.

Like the price of every commodity, the immediate wages of common labor is determined by the relation of the demand and supply of labor. Other circ.u.mstances being the same, every great plague[160-1] or emigration[160-2] is wont, by decreasing the supply, to increase the wage's of labor; and a plague, the wages of the lowest kind of labor most.[160-3] And so, the increased demand, in harvest time, is wont to increase wages; and even day board during harvest time is wont to be better.[160-4] [160-5] In winter the diminished demand lowers wages again.[160-6] Among the most effective tricks of socialistic sophistry is, unfortunately, to caricature the correct principle: "labor is a commodity," into this other: "the laborer is a commodity."

Moreover, common labor has this peculiarity, that those who have it to supply are generally much more numerous than those who want it; while the reverse is the case with most other commodities. Another important peculiarity of the "commodity" labor, is, that it can seldom be bought, without at the same time reducing the person of the seller to a species of dependence. Thus, for instance, the seller cannot be in a place different from that in which his commodity is. Hence a change in the person, etc. of the buyer very readily necessitates in the workman a radical change of life, and that the levelling adjustment of local excess and want is rendered so difficult in the case of this commodity.[160-7] Hence, it is that, if in the long run the exchange of labor against wages is to be an equitable one (-- 110), the master of labor must, so to speak, incorporate part of his own personality into it, have a heart for faithful workmen and thus attach them to himself.[160-8]

[Footnote 160-1: High rate of Italian wages after the plague in 1348, but also many complaints of the indolence and dissoluteness of workmen. (_M. Villani_, I, 2 ff., 57 seq.

_Sismondi_, Gesch. der ital. Republiken in Mittelalter, VI, 39.) In England, the same plague increased the wages of threshers from an average of 1.7 d. in 1348, to 3.3 d. in 1349. Mowers received, during the 90 years previous, 1/12 of a quarter of wheat per acre; in 1371-1390, from 1/7 to 1/6.

The price of most of their wants was then from 1/8 to 1/12 as high as in _A. Young's_ time, and wages as high.

(_Rogers_, I, 306, 271, 691.) The great earthquake in Calabria, in 1783, produced similar effects. (_Galanti_, N.

Beschreiburg von Neapel, I, 450.) Compare _Jesaias_, 13, 12.

On the other hand, depopulation caused by unfortunate wars is not very favorable to the rate of wages; instance, Prussia in 1453 ff., after the Polish struggle, and Germany, after the Thirty Years' War.]

[Footnote 160-2: How much it contributes to raise wages that workmen can, in a credible way, threaten to move to other places, is ill.u.s.trated by the early high wages and personal freedom of sailors. Compare _Eden_, State of the Poor, I, 36. In consequence of the recent great emigration from Ireland, the weekly wages of farm hands in that country was 57.4 per cent. higher than in 1843-4. In Connaught, where the emigration was largest, it was 87 per cent. higher.

(London Statist. Journ., 1862, 454.)]

[Footnote 160-3: Compare _Rogers_, I, 276, and _pa.s.sim_.]

[Footnote 160-4: And this in proportion as the uncertainty of the weather causes haste. In England, the harvest doubles wages. (_Eden._) In East Friesland, it raises it from 8-10 ggr. to 2 thalers sometimes (_Steltzner_); in the steppes of southern Russia, from 12-15, to frequently 40-50 _kopeks_.

This explains why the country people who come into the weekly market are anxious, during harvest time, to get rid of their stocks as fast as possible. According to the Statist. Journal, 1862, 434, 448, the average wages in harvest and other times, amounted to:

_In harvest time._ _Other times._ In Scotland for males, 18s. 7d. 12s. 11d.

" " females, 11s. 4d. 5s. 7d.

In Ireland " males, 12s. 9d. 6s. 11d.

" " females, 8s. 3d. 3s. 9d.

" " males, 15s. 4d. 7s. 1d.

" " females, 7s. 1d. 3s. 11d.

The reason why the wages of females rises more in harvest time than the wages of males may be the same that in many places in Ireland has made emigration more largely increase the wages of women. (l. c., 454.) Every excess of workmen depresses, and every scarcity of workmen enhances the wages of the lowest strata relatively most.]

[Footnote 160-5: The wages of English sailors was usually 40-50 shillings a month. During the last naval war, it rose to from 100 to 120, on account of the great demand created by the English fleet. (_McCulloch_, On Taxation, 40.)]

[Footnote 160-6: The winter wages of German agricultural laborers varies between 6.1 and 20 silver groschens; summer wages between 7.9 and 27.5 silver groschens. _Emminghaus_, Allg. Gewerbelehre, 81, therefore, advises that in winter the meal time of workmen in the fields should be postponed to the end of the day, and winter wages then made less low than at present.]