第238页 / 共2651页

Stock employed in the purchase and improvement of such lands,

must yield a very large profit, and, consequently, afford to pay

a very large interest. Its rapid accumulation in so profitable an

employment enables the planter to increase the number of his

hands faster than he can find them in a new settlement. Those

whom he can find, therefore, are very liberally rewarded. As the

colony increases, the profits of stock gradually diminish. When

the most fertile and best situated lands have been all occupied,

less profit can be made by the cultivation of what is inferior

both in soil and situation, and less interest can be afforded for

the stock which is so employed. In the greater part of our

colonies, accordingly, both the legal and the market rate of

interest have been considerably reduced during the course of the

present century. As riches, improvement, and population, have

increased, interest has declined. The wages of labour do not sink

with the profits of stock.