Book IV.-EFFECT OF MATERIAL PROGRESS UPON THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH.

Auckland Star, Volume XX, Issue 147, 22 June 1889, Page 4 (Supplement)

Book IV.-EFFECT OF MATERIAL PROGRESS UPON THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH.

Chapter I.—But whab causes rent t° advance as material progress goes onThe changes which constitute or contribute bo material progress are three : (1) increase of population ; (2) improvements in the arts of production and exchange; (3) improvements in knowledge, education, police, manners and morals, so far as they increase the prices of producing wealth. To ascertain the effect of these changes on the distribution of wealth, consider the first aparb from the second and third, and the second and third (which are in effect bhe same) apart from the firsb.

Chapter 11. —Incroase of population increases renb and consequently diminishes the proportion of the produce which goes to capital and labour, in two ways : (1) By lowering the margin of cultivation ; and (2) by bringing out in land special capabilities otherwise latent, arid by attracting; special capabilities to particular lands. Chapter, 111. —The primary effect of improvements in the arts is to increase the power of labour in the production* of wealth ; which, the demand for wealth beingunsatisfied, will be utilised in procuring more wealth. But, as land is necessary for the production of .wealth, the secondary effect is to extend the margin of production to lands of less natural productiveness, cr, on bhe same lands, to a point of lower natural productiveness. Chapter IV.—Tim confident expectation of future enhancement of land values which arises from bhe steady 'increase of rent in all progressive communities, leads to the holding of land out of use or oub of i_3 besb uso for a higher price, and produces the effects of a combination among land holders whereby the margin is forced farther than required by the necessities of production. This is the force evolved by material progress which tends constantly to increase rent in greater ratio than progress increases production, and thus constantly tends, as material progress goe3 on and productive power increases, to reduce wages not merely as a proportion but absolutely.