Rent, considered as the price paid for the use of land, is naturally the highest which the tenant can afford to pay in the actual circumstances of the land. In adjusting the terms of the lease, the landlord endeavours to leave him no greater share of the produce than what is sufficient to keep up the stock from which he furnishes the seed, pays the labour, and purchases and maintains the cattle, and other instruments of husbandry, together with the ordinary profits of farming stock in the neighbourhood. This is evidently the smallest share with which the tenant can content himself without being a loser, and the landlord seldom means to leave him any more. Whatever part of the produce, or, what is the same thing, whatever part of its price, is over and above

Vol. II. B interference, to decide his own policy, to buy and sell to the best advantage, and to conduct his business as he thinks advisable. Here the state makes no effort to regulate his business activities so long as public welfare is not endangered. Under normal conditions it has no concern with the details of his business, with the source of his raw materials, with the volume of his output, or with the prices of his product. Consequently, any one in the United States can move about at his convenience, seek employment anywhere, and engage in almost any business for which he is equipped.