RENT

209

ground,  and  how  exactly  the  amount  of  the
surplus  of  produce  (in  value)  over  expenses
is  settled.  There  obviously  cannot  be  a  surplus ­
  on  the  marginal  land,  when  any  other
available  land  remains  uncultivated,  if  we
include  in  the  labour  the  work  done  in  the
way  of  direction  by  the  farmer  himself,
because  it  is  assumed  that  what  is  received
for  the  produce  when  no  rent  is  paid  will  be
just  sufficient  adequately  to  remunerate  the
whole  of  the  factors  engaged  in  working
the  land.  The  surplus  derived  from  the
other  lands  will  evidently  be  the  outcome  of
their  differential  advantages,  and  this  surplus
consequently  will  be  the  rent.
In  an  attempt  to  settle  these  further  points
there  is  nothing  to  baffle  those  who  have
acquired  deftness  with  the  marginal  method.
Let  us  think  of  labour  and  capital  as  made
up  of  doses  of  productive  agents  each  of  a
given  value.  Thus  let  us  mean  by  a  dose  of
labour  and  capital  20s.  spent  to  the  best-known
purpose  on  labour  (including  the  farmer’s
work),  machinery,  seed  and  other  farming
necessities  in  the  working  of  the  land.  One
dose,  of  course,  might  stand  for  much  labour
and  little  instrumental  capital,  while  another
dose  might  stand  for  little  labour  and  much  of
the  other  things  required  in  agriculture.  Now