Note 1174 — Chapter II · : THE THEORY OF RENT AND ITS APPLICATIONS

“A commodity may no doubt, in some contingencies, yield a rent even under the most disadvantageous circumstances of its production; but only when it is, for the time, in the condition of those commodities which are absolutely limited in supply, and is therefore selling at a scarcity value—which never is, nor has been, nor can be a permanent condition of any of the great rent-yielding commodities.” (Principles, Book III, chap. 5, § 4.) For the position with regard to mines see the same chapter, § 3.