RENT

(Lat. reditus•; Fr. fermage, lover des terres.) In Political Economy, and in ordinary language, the sum paid by the farmers or le ees of lands to the landlords. In order to acquire clear and correct ideas with respect to the nature and origin of rent, it is nece ary to discriminate between the sources whence it usually arises; that is, between the portion paid for the use of the natural and inherent powers of the soil, and the portion paid for the use of the buildings, fences, drains, roads, anil other improvements made upon the soil. Two farms may be naturally of about equal goodne , and equally well situated; but if little or no capital have been laid out on the one, while a great deal has been judiciously laid out on the other, they will let for very different sums. It is usual, no doubt, to cla all sums derived from land, whatever may be their origin, under the common name of rent; but it is obviously nece ary, in an inquiry of this sort, to distinguish between tin; Bums paid for the use of the land and those paid for the vise of the improvements, if there be any, made upon it. Landlords are, for the most part, capitalists as well as owners of the soil; nnd the sums paid to them by their tenants for the use of the capital expended upon the soil, though included under the term rent, are substantially and in tact profits, and depend wholly on the circumstances by which they are governed. Rent really, therefore, consists of that portion of the gro sum paid for land, that is, paid for the use of the natural and inherent powers of the soil, or that would be paid for the land supposing it to be in a State of nature, and without any improvement upon it. The owners of tit-- soil receive this portion of their gro income, not because they are capitalists, but because they are landlords. And we shall now briefly endeavour to exhibit the origin of this payment,or of rent, in the scientific and restricted.sense of the term. Origin of Rent. — On the first settling of any country abounding In large tracts of unappropriated land, rent, in the sense now explained, is unknown: and for this obvious reason, that no person will pay rent for what may be' pro cured in unlimited quantities for nothing. In such countries rent only begins to appear when the best of the unappropri atcd lands have become private property nnd been occupied. Suppose, however, this comes to be the case, and that the population has increased, so that the demand lor raw produce can no longer be supplied by the culture of the best lands: under these circumstances, it i-i plain either that population must become stationary, or that the price of raw produce must rise so as to enable inferior lands to be cultivated. No advance short of this will procure another bushel of corn; and competition will not, as will be imme djately seen, allow prices to rise permanently above this level. Under the circumstances supposed, the inhabitants have but one alternative. If they pay a price sufficient to cover the expense of cultivating secondary lands, they will obtain additional supplies; if they do not, they must be without them. Suppose, now, that the price rises so as to pay the expense of raising corn on soils which, in return for the same expenditure that would produce 100 quarters on lands of the first quality, will only yield 90 quarters; it is plain it will then be indifferent to a farmer whether he pay a rent of ten quarters for the first quality of land, or farm the second quality, which is unappropriated and open, without paying any rent. If the population went on increasing, lands which would yield only 80, 70, 60, 50, , quarters in return for the same expenditure that had raised 100 quarters on the best lands might be succe ively brought under cultivation.And when recourse has been had tn these ini'erint lands, the corn rent of those that are superior would plainly be equal to the difference between the quantity of prc.dnce obtained from them and the quantity obtained from the worst quality under tillage. Suppose, for example, that the worst quality cultivated yields 60 quarters, then the rent of the first quality will be 40 quarters, or 100 — 60; the rent of the second quality will, in like manner, be equal to the difference between 90 and 60, or 30 quarters; the rent of the third quality will be equal to 80 — 60, or 20 quarters, and so on; the produce raised on the land last cultivated, or by means of the capital last applied to the soil, being all the while sold at Its nece ary price, or at that price which is sufficient merely to cover the cost of its production, incln- [s. 1062]