THE WEALTH OE NATIONS.

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belonged to a single proprietor, and were put under the neg-ligent, expensive, and oppressive management of his factorsand agents. The crown lands of Great Britain do not atpresent aiford the fourth part of the rent, which could pro-bably be drawn from them if they were the property of privatepersons. If the crown lands were more extensive, it is pro-bable they would be still worse managed.

The revenue which the great body of the people derives fromland is in proportion, not to the rent, but to the produce ofthe land. The whole annual produce of the land of everycountry, if we except what is reserved for seed, is either an-nually consumed by the great body of the people, or exchangedfor something else that is consumed by them. Whateverkeeps down the produce of the land below what it wouldotherwise rise to, keeps down the revenue of the great bodyof the people, still more than it does that of the proprietorsof land. The rent of land, that portion of the produce whichbelongs t,o the proprietors, is scarce anywhere in Great Bri-tain supposed to be more than a third part of the whole pro-duce. Il the land which in one state of cultivation affords arent of ten millions sterling a year, would in another afford arent of twenty millions; the rent being, in both cases, sup-posed a third part of the produce; the revenue of the pro-prietors would be less than it otherwise might be by ten mil-lions a year only; but the revenue of the great body of thepeople would be less than it otherwise might be by thirtymillions a year, deducting only what would be necessary forseed. The population of the country would be less by thenumber of people which thirty millions a year, deducting al-ways the seed, could maintain, according to the particularmode of living and expense which might take place in thedill’erent ranks of men, among whom the remainder was dis-tributed.

Though there is not at present in Europe any civilizedstate of any kind which derives the greater part of its publicrevenue from the rent of lands which are the property of thestate; yet, in all the great monarchies of Europe , there arestill many large tracts of land which belong to the crown.They arc generally forest; and sometimes forest where, aftertravelling several miles, you will scarce find a single tree; amere waste and loss of country in respect both of produceand population. In every great monarchy of Europe thesale of the crown lands would produce a very large sum of