to such a payment, indicates the profit, which is a fair remuneration for the capital which the peasant proprietor employs. Again, the portion of the produce which represents wages may be ascertained by estimating the wages which would have to be paid if the peasant proprietor, instead of working himself, cultivated his and with hired labour. Such an estimate as that we have just indicated is often of great practical importance. The comparative advantages and disadvantages of farming by peasant proprietors have long been keenly disputed. In order to decide this important question, we must pursue the following method. From the whole produce which is raised upon the land cultivated by a peasant proprietor, there must in the first place be deducted an amount which represents the rent this land would pay; there must also be deducted a certain amount for labour and capital, and if a surplus remains, it will represent the advantage of farming by peasant proprietors. We shall, in another chapter, have occasion to enlarge on this subject.
Cases of India and of slave owning countries.A great portion of the land of India is occupied, not by peasant proprietors, but by peasant cultivators the land is generally owned by the government. The peasant cultivators often rent from the government a small portion of land, which they can cultivate with their own labour and capital. Sometimes the government grants the land at a fixed rental to individuals who occupy the position of middle-men, and who re-let the land to peasant cultivators. Land which is cultivated by slaves is in an anomalous position, for in this case it would appear that the whole produce is shared between rent and capital, since the slaves must be regarded as a portion of the slave-owner's capital, just in the same manner as the horses which plough our own soil are a portion of an English farmer's capital The slaves do not receive any wages; they cannot accumulate wealth; they have none of the rights of property. The slaves are fed, it is true; but so are the horses fed. The economic condition of a slave country differs so much from other countries that it is proposed to discuss some of the economic aspects of slavery in a separate chapter.
