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It is otherwise in estates above ground. The value, both of their

produce and of their rent, is in proportion to their absolute,

and not to their relative fertility. The land which produces a

certain quantity of food, clothes, and lodging, can always feed,

clothe, and lodge, a certain number of people; and whatever may

be the proportion of the landlord, it will always give him a

proportionable command of the labour of those people, and of the

commodities with which that labour can supply him. The value of

the most barren land is not diminished by the neighbourhood of

the most fertile. On the contrary, it is generally increased by

it. The great number of people maintained by the fertile lands

afford a market to many parts of the produce of the barren, which

they could never have found among those whom their own produce

could maintain.