194

ON THE CAUSES
ever ready to act upon it the moment it has
exceeded a particular point.

Under this head we may class the important
articles of corn, raw produce in general, metals,
coals, and several others. As one commodity,
however, will elucidate the rest, we may con-
fine our observations to the first.

The value of that corn which is produced
on lands paying rent, is not, it is acknow-
ledged, in proportion either to the capital or to
the labour actually expended in its production.
It must be owing, therefore, to some other
cause; and the only other cause is the state of
the supply and demand, or the competition of
the purchasers. This competition might raise
the price to an indefinite height, if it were not
for the existence of other lands, which although
they could produce corn only at a greater cost,
would be brought into cultivation as soon as
the price had risen sufficiently high to pay
the ordinary profits on the capital required.
It is, therefore, the possibility of producing
corn, or the actual production of it, at a greater