108

ON THE CAUSES
corn or other produce, rent must be an accurate
representation of the additional value conse-
quent on the monopoly of the land on which
the corn is grown : therefore, if one part of the
price of corn, from any particular land, is con-
sidered as representing the share of the la-
bourer, another the share of the capitalist, the
remainder, if any, will be representative of the
vent; and it is probably this consideration
which has led economists to speak of it as a
component part of price. In whatever way the
expression is used, it is at the best vague and
indefinite, and ought to be banished from a
science, which owes half its difficulties to the
laxity and ambiguity of language.

3. The third class of commodities, those
which can be increased by industry, and on
which competition acts without restraint, are
the next to claim our consideration.

The value of these commodities owes no-
thing to monopoly ; what then are the causes
which determine the quantities in which they
are exchanged for each other?