Below this is a descending line representing profits—capital’s share.[354] It shows a downward trend for the simple reason that it finds itself squeezed between the proprietor’s share, which tends to increase, and the labourer’s, which is stationary. The capitalist is brought to our notice in the guise of an English farmer who is obliged to raise his servants’ wages as the corn becomes dearer, but who gains nothing by this rise because the extra revenue is taken by the proprietor in the form of higher rent. But profits cannot fall indefinitely, for beyond a certain point it would involve an end to the employment of old capital and the formation of new capital. This would hinder the cultivation of new lands, and would arrest the high price of corn and lower rent. 3. THE BALANCE OF TRADE THEORY AND THE QUANTITY THEORY OF MONEY Such are the more characteristic of Ricardo’s doctrines—at any rate, those that left the deepest impression upon his successors and caused the greatest stir among his contemporaries. There are other doctrines besides which, regarded as contributions to the science, are much more important and more definite; but just because they figured almost directly in the category of universally accepted truths whose validity and authorship have never been questioned they have contributed less to his fame. Such are his theories of international trade and banking, where the theorist becomes linked to a first-rate practical genius. Here at any rate there is no note of pessimism and no suggestion of conflicting interests. On the contrary, he was able to point out that “under a system of perfectly free commerce the pursuit of individual advantage is admirably connected with the universal good of the whole.” In the matter of international trade he showed himself a more resolute Free Trader than either Smith or the Physiocrats. It seemed to him that the only way of arresting the terrible progress of rent and of checking the rising price of corn and the downward tendency of profits was by the freest importation of foreign corn.[355] In addition to this twofold argument in favour of Free Trade, Ricardo brings forward another which is of considerable importance even at the present time. This argument is based upon the advantages which accrue from the territorial division of labour. “By stimulating industry, by rewarding ingenuity, and by using most efficaciously the peculiar powers bestowed by Nature, it distributes labour most effectively and most economically.”