In one word: it is evident as respects the production of wine,as also in that of meat, of corn, and of raw materials andprovisions generally, that in the case of a great nation wellfitted to establish a manufacturing power of its own, the internalmanufacturing production occasions ten to twenty times more demandfor the agricultural products of temperate climates, consequentlyacts ten to twenty times more effectually on the increase of therent and exchangeable value of real estate, than the mostflourishing exportation of such products can do.The mostconvincing proof of this may also be seen in the amount of rentsand the exchangeable value of land near large towns, as comparedwith their amount and value in distant provinces, even though theselatter are connected with the capital by good roads andconveniences for commercial intercourse.
The doctrine of rent can either be considered from the point ofview of values or from the point of view of productive powers; itcan further be considered with respect merely to private relations,namely, the relations between landed proprietor, farmer, andlabourer, or with especial regard to the social and nationalrelations and conditions.The school has taken up this doctrinechiefly from the sole point of view of private economy.So far aswe know, for instance, nothing has been adduced by it to show howthe consumption of the rents of the nation is the more advantageousthe more it takes place in the proximity of the place whence it isderived, but how nevertheless in the various States thatconsumption takes place principally at the seat of the sovereign(e.g.in absolute monarchies mostly in the national metropolis),far away from the provinces where it is produced, and therefore ina manner the least advantageous to agriculture, to the most usefulindustries, and to the development of the mental powers of thenation.Where the landowning aristocracy possess no rights and nopolitical influence unless they live at the Court, or occupyoffices of State, and where all public power and influence iscentralised in the national metropolis, landowners are attracted tothat central point, where almost exclusively they can find themeans of satisfying their ambition, and opportunities for spendingthe income of their landed property in a pleasant manner; and themore that most landowners get accustomed to live in the capital,and the less that a residence in the provinces offers to eachindividual opportunities for social intercourse and for mental andmaterial enjoyments of a more refined character, the more willprovincial life repel him and the metropolis attract him.Theprovince thereby loses and the metropolis gains almost all thosemeans of mental improvement which result from the spending ofrents, especially those manufactures and mental producers whichwould have been maintained by the rent.The metropolis under thosecircumstances, indeed, appears extremely attractive because itunites in itself all the talents of the intellectual workers andthe greatest part of the material trades which produce articles ofluxury.But the provinces are thereby deprived of those mentalpowers, of those material means, and especially of thoseindustries, which chiefly enable the agriculturist to undertakeagricultural improvements, and stimulate him to effect them.
In these circumstances lies to a great extent the reason why inFrance, especially under absolute monarchy, alongside of ametropolis surpassing in intellect and splendour all towns of theEuropean continent, agriculture made but slight progress, and theprovinces were deficient in mental culture and in usefulindustries.But the more that the landed aristocracy gains inindependence of the Court, and in influence in legislation andadministration, the more that the representative system and thesystem of administration grants to the towns and provinces theright of administering their own local affairs and of taking partin the legislation and government of the State, and consequentlythe more that respect and influence can be attained in theprovinces and by living there, so much the more will the landedaristocracy, and the educated and well-to-do citizens, be drawn tothose localities from which they derived their rents, the greateralso will be the influence of the expenditure of those rents on thedevelopment of the mental powers and social institutions, on thepromotion of agriculture, and on the development of thoseindustries which are useful to the great masses of the people inthe province.
The economical conditions of England afford proof of thisobservation.The fact that the English landed proprietor lives forthe greatest portion of the year on his estates, promotes inmanifold ways the improvement of English agriculture: directly,because the resident landowner devotes a portion of his rent toundertaking on his own account improvements in agriculture, or tosupporting such improvements when undertaken by his tenants;indirectly, because his own consumption tends to support themanufactures and agencies of mental improvement and Civilisationexisting in the neighbourhood.From these circumstances it canfurther partly be explained why in Germany and in Switzerland, inspite of the want of large towns, of important means of transport,and of national institutions, agriculture and Civilisation ingeneral are in a much higher condition than in France.