99. There exists no revenue strictly disposable in a state,
but the clear produce of lands.
It is manifest by what I have said, that the interest of
money lent is taken on the revenue of lands, or on the profits of
enterprizes of culture, industry, and commerce. But we have
already shewn that these profits themselves were only a part of
the production of lands; that the produce of land is divided in
two portions; that the one was designed for the salary of the
cultivator, for his profits, for the recovery and interest of his
advances; and that the other was the part of the proprietor, or
the revenue which the proprietor expended at his option, and from
whence he contributes to the general expences of the state.
We have demonstrated, that what the other classes of society
received, was merely the salaries and profits paid, either by the
proprietor upon his revenue, or by the agents of the productive
class, on the part destined to their wants, and which they are
obliged to purchase of the industrious class. Whether these
profits be now distributed in wages to the workmen, in profits to
undertakers, or in interests of advances, they do not change the
nature, or augment the sum of the revenue produced by the
productive class over and above the price of their labour, in
which the industrious class does not participate, but as far as
the price of their labour extends.
Hence it follows, that there is no revenue but the clear
produce of land, and that all other profit is paid, either by
that revenue, or makes part of the expenditure that serves to
produce the revenue.
