more plentiful and cheaper. If the view of the subject, taken in
the preceding inquiry, be correct, the last additions made to our
home produce are sold at the cost of production, and the same
quantity could not be produced from our own soil at a less price,
even without rent. The effect of transferring all rents to
tenants, would be merely the turning them into gentlemen, and
tempting them to cultivate their farms under the superintendence
of careless and uninterested bailiffs, instead of the vigilant
eye of a master, who is deterred from carelessness by the fear of
ruin, and stimulated to exertion by the hope of a competence. The
most numerous instances of successful industry, and well-directed
knowledge, have been found among those who have paid a fair rent
for their lands; who have embarked the whole of their capital in
their undertaking; and who feel it their duty to watch over it
with unceasing care, and add to it whenever it is possible. But
when this laudable spirit prevails among a tenantry, it is of the
very utmost importance to the progress of riches, and the
permanent increase of rents, that it should have the power as
well as the will to accumulate; and an interval of advancing
prices, not immediately followed by a proportionate rise of
rents, furnishes the most effective powers of this kind. These
intervals of advancing prices, when not succeeded by retrograde
movements, most powerfully contribute to the progress of national
wealth. And practically I should say, that when once a character
of industry and economy has been established, temporary high
profits are a more frequent and powerful source of accumulation,
than either an increased spirit of saving, or any other cause
that can be named.(19) It is the only cause which seems capable
of accounting for the prodigious accumulation among individuals,
which must have taken place in this country during the last