prevent any increase.

We observe in consequence, that in all those countries, such
as Poland, where, from the want of accumulation, the profits of
stock remain very high, and the progress of cultivation either
proceeds very slowly, or is entirely stopped, the wages of labour
are extremely low. And this cheapness of labour, by diminishing
the expenses of cultivation, as far as labour is concerned,
counteracts the effects of the high profits of stock, and
generally leaves a larger rent to the landlord than in those
countries, such as America, where, by a rapid accumulation of
stock, which can still find advantageous employment, and a great
demand for labour, which is accompanied by an adequate increase
of produce and population, profits cannot be low, and labour for
some considerable time remains very high.

It may be laid down, therefore, as an incontrovertible truth,
that as a nation reaches any considerable degree of wealth, and
any considerable fullness of population, which of course cannot
take place without a great fall both in the profits of stock and
the wages of labour, the separation of rents, as a kind of
fixture upon lands of a certain quality, is a law as invariable
as the action of the principle of gravity. And that rents are
neither a mere nominal value, nor a value unnecessarily and
injuriously transferred from one set of people to another; but a
most real and essential part of the whole value of the national
property, and placed by the laws of nature where they are, on the
land, by whomsoever possessed, whether the landlord, the crown,
or the actual cultivator.