Book I: Chapter 11 - Page 2

this kind, demands a rent for it as much as
for his corn-fields.

The sea in the neighbourhood of the islands of Shetland is more than
commonly abundant in fish, which makes a great part of the subsistence of
their inhabitants. But, in order to profit by the produce of the water, they
must have a habitation upon the neighbouring land. The rent of the landlord
is in proportion, not to what the farmer can make by the land, but to what
he can make both by the land and the water. It is partly paid in sea-fish;
and one of the very few instances in which rent makes a part of the price of
that commodity, is to be found in that country.

The rent of land, therefore, considered as the price paid for the use of the
land, is naturally a monopoly price. It is not at all proportioned to what
the landlord may have laid out upon the improvement of the land, or to what
he can afford to take, but to what the farmer can afford to give.

Such parts only of the produce of land can commonly be brought to market, of
which the ordinary price is sufficient to replace the stock which must be
employed in bringing them thither, together with its ordinary profits. If
the ordinary price is more than this, the surplus part of it will naturally
go to the rent of the land. If it is not more, though the commodity may be
brought to market, it can afford no rent to the landlord. Whether the price
is, or is not more, depends upon the demand.

There are some parts of the produce of land, for which the demand must
always be such as to afford a greater price than what is sufficient to bring
them to market; and there are others for which it either may or may not be
such as to afford this greater price. The former must always afford a rent
to the landlord. The latter sometimes may and sometimes may not, according
to different circumstances.

Rent, it is to be observed, therefore, enters into the composition of the
price of commodities in a different way from wages and profit. High or low
wages and profit are the causes of high or low price ; high or low rent is
the effect of it. It is because high or low wages and profit must be paid,
in order to bring a particular commodity to market, that its price is high
or low. But it is because its price is high or low, a great deal more, or
very little more, or no more, than what is sufficient to pay those wages and
profit, that it affords a high rent, or a low rent, or no rent at all.

The particular consideration, first, of those parts of the produce of land
which always afford some rent ; secondly, of those which sometimes may and
sometimes may not afford rent ; and, thirdly, of the variations which, in
the different periods of improvement, naturally take place in the relative
value of those