very best land, out of cultivation, and probably reduce its
produce and population to less than one tenth of their former
amount.

From the preceding account of the progress of rent, it
follows, that the actual state of the natural rent of land is
necessary to the actual produce; and that the price of produce,
in every progressive country, must be just about equal to the
cost of production on land of the poorest quality actually in
use; or to the cost of raising additional produce on old land,
which yields only the usual returns of agricultural stock with
little or no rent.

It is quite obvious that the price cannot be less; or such
land would not be cultivated, nor such capital employed. Nor can
it ever much exceed this price, because the poor land
progressively taken into cultivation, yields at first little or
no rent; and because it will always answer to any farmer who can
command capital, to lay it out on his land, if the additional
produce resulting from it will fully repay the profits of his
stock, although it yields nothing to his landlord.

It follows then, that the price of raw produce, in reference
to the whole quantity raised, is sold at the natural or necessary
price, that is, at the price necessary to obtain the actual
amount of produce, although by far the largest part is sold at a
price very much above that which is necessary to its production,
owing to this part being produced at less expense, while its
exchangeable value remains undiminished.