Note 1173 — Chapter II · : THE THEORY OF RENT AND ITS APPLICATIONS

Ricardo had already made use of the following argument: “Suppose that the demand is for a million of quarters of corn, and that they are the produce of the land actually in cultivation. Now, suppose the fertility of all the land to be so diminished that the very same lands will yield only 900,000 quarters. The demand being for a million of quarters, the price of corn would rise, and recourse must necessarily be had to land of an inferior quality sooner than if the superior land had continued to produce a million of quarters.” (Principles, chap. 32, p. 246.) Towards the end of his life Ricardo seems to have been more favourably inclined to a conception of rent somewhat closer akin to J. B. Say’s. Compare the curious quotations given in Frézouls, op. cit., p. 21.