Here are
1,000 scudi (about L215) flung clean into the gutter; and
all for the pleasure of cultivating 100 rubbia of land. Is
it not much better to let the 100 rubbia to a
cattle-breeder, who will pay a rent of thirty or forty
shillings per rubbio? On one side we have a clear loss of
L215, and on the other a clear income of L160 or L184."
This reasoning is founded upon the calculations of Monsignore Nicolai,
a prelate of considerable ability[17]: but it proves nothing, because
it attempts to prove too much. If the cultivation of corn be really so
ruinous an operation, it is strange that farmers should continue to
grow it merely to spite the government.
But although it is quite true that the cultivation of a rubbio of land
costs 80 scudi, it is false that the earth only yields sevenfold on
the seed sown. According to the admission of the farmers
themselves--and they are notoriously not in the habit of exaggerating
their profits--it yields thirteen-fold on the seed sown. Thirteen
measures of corn are worth thirteen times ten scudi, or 130 scudi.
Deduct 80, the cost of cultivation, and 50 remain. Multiply by 100,
the result is 5,000 scudi (about L1,070), which will be the net income
arising from the 100 rubbia cultivated in corn. The same extent of
land under pasturage will produce L160 or L180.
Consider, moreover, that it is not the net, but the gross income,
which constitutes the wealth of a country.
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