Principles of Political Economy · John Stuart Mill
RENT.
91. What connection exists between the law of Malthus and Ricardo’s doctrine of rent? 92. What is the reason why land-owners can demand rent? 93. Explain and illustrate the distinction between rent and profits. In what cases are they nearly indistinguishable? 94. It has often been observed that in America land is much less highly cultivated than in England. Explain the economic reasons for this. 95. How does the theory of rent apply in a country like the United States, where the farmer owns his land instead of hiring it? 96. How is it that some agricultural capital pays rent, even if resort is not had to different grades of land? 97. Give a brief description of the theory of rent, and point out to what payments not usually called rent the theory may be applied. 98. State briefly Ricardo’s theory of rent, and show that, if it be true, the following statements of Adam Smith must be false: “The most fertile coal-mine regulates the price of coals at all the other mines in the neighborhood.” “In the price of corn one part pays the rent of the landlord, another pays the wages, and another the profit of the farmer.” 99. Why does the farming business pay rent, and the cotton business (ground-rent excluded) pay none? Define rent. 100. “As population increases, rents estimated in corn increase, and the price of corn rises; rents, therefore, doubly tend to increase.” Prove this.
101. Professor Rogers adduces, in refutation of the common theory of rent, the fact that land near New York pays a high rent, while land of the same natural fertility in the Western States pays no rent. How far do you admit the force of this objection? 102. Examine the following doctrine: “If invention and improvement still go on, the efficiency of labor will be further increased, and the amount of labor and capital necessary to produce a given result further diminished. The same causes will lead to the utilization of this new gain in productive power for the production of more wealth; the margin of cultivation will be again extended, and rent will increase, both in proportion and amount, without any increase in wages and interest. And so, ... will ... rent constantly increase, though population should remain stationary.”—Henry George, “Progress and Poverty” (p. 226). 103. What answer is made to Mr. Carey’s objection to Ricardo’s theory of rent, that in point of fact the poorer, not the richer, lands are first brought under cultivation? 104. Explain how land, “even apart from differences of situation,... would all of it, on a certain supposition, pay rent.” 105. Explain clearly how it is possible for the land of a country which is all of uniform fertility to pay rent. 106. “If the earth had a perfectly smooth surface the same everywhere, and if it were all tilled and cultivated in exactly the same way, there would be no such thing as rent.” Examine this proposition.
107. Show that rent does not increase the price of bread. 108. How is it shown that “rent does not really form any part of the expenses of production or of the advances of the capitalist?” 109. (1.) What connection exists between the price of agricultural products and the amount of rent paid? (2.) Can rent affect the price? 110. “Rent is the effect and not the cause of price.” Prove this. 111. Does rent enter into the cost of production of the following commodities or not, and why: Corn, cloth, the wine of the best vineyards? 112. “Rent arises from the difference between the least fertile and the most fertile soils, and from the fact that the former have been taken into cultivation.... Rent is the difference between the market price of produce and the cost of production.” Harmonize these statements. 113. In order that the actual payments made by farmers to landlords should generally correspond with “economic rent,” what conditions must be observed? 114. What is assumed, as to competition, in all Mr. Mill’s reasoning on wages, profits, and rent? Explain its action in each case.
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