RENT 
203 
so that the worst land bears no rent ; and 
let it be given also that the inhabitants of 
the country continue to multiply notwith 
standing. In consequence of the latter cir 
cumstance, the demand for the fruits of the 
earth would rise, and, if payment for land did 
not rise proportionately at the same time 
and the worst land bear a rent corresponding 
to the increased value of its produce, all 
farmers would make profits over and above 
those earned by men of similar capacity in 
other callings, because presumably, prior to the 
rise in the price of food, the farming business 
was neither more nor less profitable than 
other businesses. The comparative fortunes 
to be made out of tilling the soil would 
attract into the farming industry larger 
numbers year by year ; which is to say 
that in a short time excessive competition 
to obtain land, the source of the abnormal 
profits, would appear. Under the pressure 
of this competition, the land at the bottom 
of the scale, as regards quality, would begin 
to bear a rent, and this rent would rise until 
the farming of that land was no more profit 
able than any other business, that is, until the 
substitution of farming for another trade 
would be a matter of indifference from the 
pecuniary point of view. And, just as and