Note 157-2 — Chapter II

When the demand for products of the soil which minister to luxury, such as fat meat, milk, vegetables, is increasing, a greater cheapness of the necessary wheat may raise rent, for the reason that lands are now cultivated which were not formerly tillable. Thus, there is now land in Lancashire which could not formerly be planted with corn, because the laborers would have consumed more than the harvest yielded. Since the large imports of the means of subsistence from Ireland these lands have been transformed into artificial meadows, gardens, etc. (Torrens, The Budget, 180 ff.) Compare Adam Smith, I, 257, ed. Bas. Banfield would misuse these facts to overturn the theory of Ricardo. (Organization of Industry, 1848, 49 ff.)