Principles of Political Economy: Abridged with Critical, Bibliographical, and Explanatory Notes, and a Sketch of the History of Political Economy
John Stuart Mill · en
Both in the case of mines and of fisheries, the natural order of events is
liable to be interrupted by the opening of a new mine, or a new fishery,
of superior quality to some of those already in use. In this case, when
things have permanently adjusted themselves, the result will be that the
scale of qualities which supply the market will have been cut short at the
lower end, while a new insertion will have been made in the scale at some
point higher up; and the worst mine or fishery in use—the one which
regulates the rents of the superior qualities and the value of the
commodity—will be a mine or fishery of better quality than that by which
they were previously regulated.
The ground-rent of a building, and the rent of a garden or park attached
to it, will not be less than the rent which the same land would afford in
agriculture, but may be greater than this to an indefinite amount; the
surplus being either in consideration of beauty or of convenience, the
convenience often consisting in superior facilities for pecuniary gain.
Sites of remarkable beauty are generally limited in supply, and therefore,
if in great demand, are at a scarcity value. Sites superior only in
convenience are governed as to their value by the ordinary principles of
rent. The ground-rent of a house in a small village is but little higher
than the rent of a similar patch of ground in the open fields.
Suppose the various kinds of land to be represented by the
alphabet; that those below O pay no agricultural rent, and that
all lands increase in fertility and situation as we approach the
beginning of the alphabet, but which, as far up as K, are used in
agriculture; that higher than K all are more profitably used for
building purposes, viz.:
A, B, C, ... | K, L, M, N, O, | ... X, Y, Z.
Now it will happen that land is chosen for building purposes
irrespective of its fertility for agricultural purposes. It will
not be true, as some may think, that no land will be used for
building until it will pay a ground-rent greater than the greatest
agricultural rent paid by any piece of land. It is not true, for
example, if N be selected for a building-lot, that it must pay a
ground-rent as high as the agricultural rent of K, the most
fertile land cultivated in agriculture. It must pay a ground-rent
higher only than it itself would pay, if cultivated. It is only
necessary that it pay more than the same (not better) land would
pay as rent if used only in agriculture.