He expended the remainder of his dollars in buildings, enclosures, clearances, trenching, draining, improving, etc.; and after having dug, laboured, sowed, harrowed, reaped, at length came the time to dispose of his crop. “Now I shall see,” said Jonathan, still occupied with the problem of value, “if in becoming a landed proprietor I have transformed myself into a monopolist, a privileged aristocrat, a plunderer of my neighbour, an engrosser of the bounties of divine Providence.” He carried his grain to market, and began to talk with a Yankee:—Friend, said he, how much will you give me for this Indian corn? The current price, replied the other. The current price! but will that yield me anything beyond the interest of my capital and the wages of my labour? I am a merchant, said the Yankee, and I know that I must content myself with the recompense of my present and former labour. And I was content with it when I was a mere drawer of water, replied the other, but now I am a landed proprietor. The English and French Economists have assured me that in that character I [p263] ought, over and above the double remuneration you point at, to derive a profit from the ‹productive and indestructible powers of the soil›, and levy a tax on the gifts of God. The gifts of God belong to all, said the merchant. I avail myself of the ‹productive power› of the wind for propelling my ships, but I make no one pay for it. Still, as far as I am concerned, I expect that you will pay me something for these powers, in order that Messieurs Senior, Considérant, and Proudhon, should not call me a monopolist and usurper for nothing. If I am to have the disgrace, I may at least have the profit, of a monopolist. In that case, friend, I must bid you good morning. To obtain the maize I am in quest of, I must apply to other proprietors, and if I find them of your mind, I shall cultivate it for myself. Jonathan then understood the truth, that, under the empire of freedom, a man cannot be a monopolist at pleasure. As long as there are lands in the Union to clear, said he, I can never be more than the simple setter in motion of these famous ‹productive and indestructible forces›. I shall be paid for my trouble, that is all, just as when I was a drawer of water I was paid for my own labour, and not for that of nature. I see now very clearly that the true usufructuary of the gifts of God is not the man who raises the corn, but the man who consumes it. Some years afterwards, another enterprise having engaged the attention of Jonathan, he set about finding a tenant for his land. The dialogue which took place between the two contracting parties was curious, and would throw much light on the subject under consideration were I to give it entire. Here is part of it: ‹Proprietor.› What! you would give me no greater rent than the interest, at the current rate, of the capital I have actually laid out? ‹Farmer.› Not a cent more. ‹Proprietor.› Why so, pray?