Jones accepts the possibility of Ricardo's catastrophist theory of the falling rate of profit, but sets out why he does not think it applies to England.
““If rents […] should ever rise from that cause alone, which has been so confidently stated by Mr. Ricardo […] ‘the employment of an additional quantity of labour with a proportionally less return’, and a consequent transfer to the landlords of a part of the produce […] obtained on the better soils; then the average proportion of the gross produce taken by the landlords as rent, will necessarily increase.” Secondly, “the industry of a larger proportion of the population must be devoted to agriculture” (pp. 280 and 281).” (p 410)
Marx notes,
“This last statement is not quite correct. It is possible that a greater portion of indirect labour is employed—i.e., more commodities provided by industry and commerce enter the agricultural process, without increasing the gross product proportionally, and without the employment of more immediate labour. There may be even less employed.” (p 410)
This is a point made by Marx, elsewhere, in comparing agriculture in England with that in Russia. Although the number employed directly in agriculture may be much less in England, a much larger number may be involved in producing agricultural equipment, fertiliser, transport, food packaging and processing etc.
Jones continues,
““The statistical history of England presents to us […] three facts […] a spread of tillage accompanied by a rise in the general rental of the country […] a diminution of the proportion of people employed in agriculture […] a decrease in the landlord’s proportion of the produce” (p. 282).” (p 410)
As Marx notes, this, like the fall in the rate of profit, is due to the larger proportion of output that must replace, in kind, the constant capital. The fact that a larger proportion of output goes to replacing, in kind, the constant capital, however, does not at all mean that the amount of surplus product or surplus value does not rise in absolute terms. Indeed, it must do so, as a result of the increase in the mass of capital. The absolute increase in the mass of surplus product/value means that the amount of profit can rise, as can the amount of rent, or as Marx illustrates, in Capital III, the increased mass of profit may result in a rise in the amount of rent, or interest, at the expense of profit of enterprise, or vice versa.
Jones supports Adam Smith's view that as capital expands on the land, so rent, whilst rising absolutely, falls relatively. That is consistent with Smith's view that the existence of profit and rent derives from the fact that labour is abundant, but that as capital accumulates faster than the growth in the supply of labour, wages rise relative to profits and rent.
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