certain sign that they are relatively scarce; and in all those
cases where a large quantity of them is required, as in the
cultivation of poor land, the means of procuring them will be
deficient, and the land will be thrown out of employment.

It appeared, that in the progress of cultivation and of
increasing rents, it was not necessary that all the instruments
of production should fall in price at the same time; and that the
difference between the price of produce and the expense of
cultivation might increase, although either the profits of stock
or the wages of labour might be higher, instead of lower.

In the same manner, when the produce of a country is
declining, and rents are falling, it is not necessary that all
the instruments of production should be dearer. In a declining or
stationary country, one most important instrument of production
is always cheap, namely, labour; but this cheapness of labour
does not counterbalance the disadvantages arising from the
dearness of capital; a bad system of culture; and, above all, a
fall in the price of raw produce, greater than in the price of
the other branches of expenditure, which, in addition to labour,
are necessary to cultivation.

It has appeared also, that in the progress of cultivation and
of increasing rents, rent, though greater in positive amount,
bears a less, and lesser proportion to the quantity of capital
employed upon the land, and the quantity of produce derived from
it. According to the same principle, when produce diminishes and
rents fall, though the amount of rent will always be less, the
proportion which it bears to capital and produce will always be