Nature and Progress of Rent
Malthus, T. R. (Thomas Robert), 1766-1834
English
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AN
INQUIRY
INTO
THE NATURE AND PROGRESS
OF
RENT,
AND THE
PRINCIPLES BY WHICH IT IS REGULATED.
BY
THE REV. T. R. MALTHUS,
_Professor of History and Political Economy In the East India College,
Hertfordshire_
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1815.
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The following tract contains the substance of some notes on
rent, which, with others on different subjects relating to
political economy, I have collected in the course of my
professional duties at the East India College. It has been my
intention, at some time or other, to put them in a form for
publication; and the very near connection of the subject of the
present inquiry, with the topics immediately under discussion,
has induced me to hasten its appearance at the present moment. It
is the duty of those who have any means of contributing to the
public stock of knowledge, not only to do so, but to do it at the
time when it is most likely to be useful. If the nature of the
disquisition should appear to the reader hardly to suit the form
of a pamphlet, my apology must be, that it was not originally
intended for so ephemeral a shape.
RENT, &c.
The rent of land is a portion of the national revenue, which
has always been considered as of very high importance.
According to Adam Smith, it is one of the three original
sources of wealth, on which the three great divisions of society
are supported.
By the Economists it is so pre-eminently distinguished, that
it is considered as exclusively entitled to the name of riches,
and the sole fund which is capable of supporting the taxes of the
state, and on which they ultimately fall.
And it has, perhaps, a particular claim to our attention at
the present moment, on account of the discussions which are going
on respecting the corn laws, and the effects of rent on the price
of raw produce, and the progress of agricultural improvement.
The rent of land may be defined to be that portion of the
value of the whole produce which remains to the owner of the
land, after all the outgoings belonging to its cultivation, of
whatever kind, have been paid, including the profits of the
capital employed, estimated according to the usual and ordinary
rate of the profits of agricultural stock at the time being.
It sometimes happens, that from accidental and temporary
circumstances, the farmer pays more, or less, than this; but this
is the point towards which the actual rents paid are constantly
gravitating, and which is therefore always referred to when the
term is used in a general sense.
The immediate cause of rent is obviously the excess of price
above the cost of production at which raw produce sells in the
market.
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