Note 150-2 — Chapter II

The English are very fond of assuming that the worst land for the time being under cultivation pays no rent. (Ricardo, Principles, II, 2.) This fact is frequently obscured by the aggregation into one economic whole of land that pays no rent and land that is able to pay rent. (John Stuart Mill, Principles, II, ch. 16, § 3.) True it is that there is a great deal of land which cannot be farmed out, but which can be used only by its owners. Compare Salfeld, in the Landwirthsch. Centralb., 1871, II, 182 ff. On land near Wetzlar which, notwithstanding the high price of land in the neighborhood, could not be farmed out at auction, because no one was desirous to lease it, and which was therefore turned over to the highest bidder for the preceding piece, see Stöckhardt, Zeitschr. für deutsche Landwirthe, 1861, 237. Where, however, all the land has its own proprietors, the competition of farmers may easily produce a rent for the worst land. It is a matter of complete indifference to the theory of rent, whether the worst land when possessed only by right of occupation or used as pasturage for cattle previous to its cultivation, had value or not. Compare Nebenius, Oeff. Credit, I, 29; Hermann, Staatswirthsch. Unters., 170 seq.