‹Farmer.› Just for this reason, that, with the outlay of an equal capital, I can put as much land in as good condition as yours. ‹Proprietor.› That seems conclusive. But consider that when you become my tenant, it is not only my capital which will work for you, but also ‹the productive and indestructible powers of the soil›. You will have enlisted in your service the marvellous influences of the sun and the moon, of affinity and electricity. Am I to give you all these things for nothing? ‹Farmer.› Why not, since they cost you nothing, and since you derive nothing from them, any more than I do? [p264] ‹Proprietor.› Derive nothing from them? I derive everything from them. Zounds! without these admirable phenomena, all my industry could not raise a blade of grass. ‹Farmer.› Undoubtedly. But remember the Yankee you met at market. He would not give you a farthing for all this co-operation of nature any more than, when you were a water-carrier, the housewives of New York would give you a farthing for the admirable elaboration by means of which nature supplied the spring. ‹Proprietor.› Ricardo and Proudhon, however, . . . . ‹Farmer.› A fig for Ricardo. We must either treat on the basis which I have laid down, ‹or I shall proceed to clear land› alongside yours, where the sun and the moon will work for me gratis. It was always the same argument, and Jonathan began to see that God had wisely arranged so as to make it difficult for man to intercept His gifts. Disgusted with the trade of proprietor, Jonathan resolved to employ his energies in some other department, and he determined to put up his land to ‹sale›. It is needless to say that no one would give him more for it than it cost himself. In vain he cited Ricardo, and represented the inherent value of the indestructible powers of the soil—the answer always was, “There are other lands close by;” and these few words put an extinguisher on his exactions and on his illusions. There is, moreover, in this transaction a fact of great Economic importance, and to which little attention has been paid. It is easy to understand that if a manufacturer desires, after ten or fifteen years, to sell his apparatus and materials, even in their new state, he will probably be forced to submit to a loss. The reason is obvious. Ten or fifteen years can scarcely elapse without considerable improvements in machinery taking place. This is the reason why the man who sends to market machinery fifteen years old cannot expect a return exactly equal to the labour he has expended; for with an equal expenditure of labour the purchaser could, owing to the progress subsequently made, procure himself machinery of improved construction—which, we may remark in passing, proves more and more clearly that value is not in proportion to labour, but to services.