HISTORY OF RENT.--IN PERIODS OF DECLINE. If a nation's economy be declining, in consequence of war for instance, the disastrous influence hereof on rent may be retarded by a still greater fall in wages or in the profit on capital. But it can be hardly retarded beyond a certain point.[158-1] As a rule, the decline of rents begins to be felt by the least fertile and least advantageously situated land.[158-2] [158-3] [Footnote 158-1: "The falling of rents an infallible sign of the decay of wealth." (_Locke._) In England, in 1450, land was bought at "14 years' purchase;" i. e., with a capital = 14 times the yearly rent paid, in 1470, at only "10 years' purchase." (_Eden_, State of the Poor, III, App., I, XXXV.) This was, doubtless, a consequence of the civil war raging in the meantime. The American war (1775-82) depressed the price of land in England to "23¼ years' purchase," whereas it had previously stood at 32. (_A. Young._) The rent of land, in many places in France, declined from 10,000 to 2,000 livres, on account of the many wars during Louis XIV.'s reign. (_Madame de Sévigné's_ Lettres, 25 Dec, 1689.) Even in 1677, it was only one-half of its former amount (_King_, Life of Locke, I, 129.) The whole Bekes county (_comitat_) in Hungary was sold for 150,000 florins under Charles VI.; after the unfortunate war with France. (_Mailath_, Oesterreich, Gesch., IV, 523.) Compare _Cantillon_, Nature du Commerce, 248. In Cologne, a new house was sold in the spring of 1848 for 1,000 thalers, the site of which alone had cost 3,000 thalers; and there are six building lots which formerly cost over 3,000 thalers, now valued at only 100 thalers. (_von Reden_, Statist. Zeitschr., 1848, 366.) On the other hand, Napoleon's war very much enhanced English rents (_Porter_, Progress of the Nation, II, 1, 150 ff.), because it affected England's national husbandry principally by hindering the importation of the means of subsistence. (_Passy_, Journal des Economistes, X, 354.)] [Footnote 158-2: Thus the price of lands, in Mecklenburg, between 1817 and 1827, fell 30 to 40 per cent. in the least fertile quarters; in the better, from 15 to 20 per cent. (_von Thünen_, in _Jacob_, Tracts relating to the Corn Trade, 40, 187.) _Per contra_, see Hundeshagen Landwirthsch. Gewerbelehre, 1839, 64 seq., and _Carey_, Principles, I, 354.]