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Often appears with: trade, markets, and merchants · value, price, and exchange · famine, scarcity, and plenty · crafts, industry, and manufacture · poverty and wealth · labor, wages, and the division of work · taxation, tribute, and revenue · public finance and debt · rank, class, and social order · custom and the manners of a people · medicine, disease, and healing · geography and the description of places
Usually: argument (475) · detachment (351) · curiosity (238) · narrative (111) · skepticism (88) · description (71) · censure (66) · commentary or gloss (59) · exhortation (58) · praise (48)
“And they will take care that their families do not exceed their means; having an eye to poverty or war.” Plato, The Republic · precept
“Oh! all too happy tillers of the soil, Could they but know their blessedness, for whom Far from the clash of arms all-equal earth Pours from the ground herself their easy fare!” Virgil, The Georgics · insight
“Oh for you Plains, and Spercheius, and Taygete, By Spartan maids o'er-revelled!” Virgil, The Georgics · vivid
“Amid my shrine shall Caesar's godhead dwell. To him will I, as victor, bravely dight In Tyrian purple, drive along the bank A hundred four-horse cars.” Virgil, The Georgics · observation
“Quick ice-crusts curdle on the running stream, And iron-hooped wheels the water's back now bears, To broad wains opened, as erewhile to ships; Brass vessels oft asunder burst, and clothes Stiffen upon the wearers; juicy wines They cleave with axes; to one frozen mass Whole pools are turned;” Virgil, The Georgics · vivid
“One will inspires the million: is he dead, Snapt is the bond of fealty; they themselves Ravage their toil-wrought honey, and rend amain Their own comb's waxen trellis.” Virgil, The Georgics · observation
“In early spring-tide, when the icy drip Melts from the mountains hoar, and Zephyr's breath Unbinds the crumbling clod, even then 'tis time;” Virgil, The Georgics · observation
“Thus by rotation like repose is gained, Nor earth meanwhile uneared and thankless left.” Virgil, The Georgics · insight
“Then divers arts arose; toil conquered all, Remorseless toil, and poverty's shrewd push In times of hardship.” Virgil, The Georgics · insight
“Before all Worship the Gods, and to great Ceres pay Her yearly dues upon the happy sward With sacrifice, anigh the utmost end Of winter, and when Spring begins to smile.” Virgil, The Georgics · precept
“Not that I With my poor verse would comprehend the whole, Nay, though a hundred tongues, a hundred mouths Were mine, a voice of iron; be thou at hand, Skirt but the nearer coast-line; see the shore Is in our grasp; not now with feigned song Through winding bouts and tedious preludings Shall I detain thee.” Virgil, The Georgics · precept
“As soon as any stranger is seen arriving, a large bell is set tolling, and generally some small cannon are fired.” Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle · observation
On January 1 Pepys dines with Lord Crewe, discusses cheap grain and farming, attends a play about Sir Martin Mar-all, hears about Privy-council changes, and visits dice gaming at the groom-porters.
have thought had been in the world, had I not now seen it. And so I having enough for once, refusing to venture, though Brisband pressed me hard, went away. 2nd. Attended the King and the Duke of York in the Duke of York's lodgings, with the rest of the officers and many of the commanders of the fleet, and some of our master shipwrights, to discourse the business of having the topmasts of ships made to lower abaft …
Odysseus sails near the Cyclops cave, waits out Polyphemus’s return, receives and uses Maron’s wine gift, and enters the cave to observe its cheeses and herded flocks before the giant returns.
own ship and my ship’s company, and make proof of these men, what manner of folk they are, whether froward, and wild, and unjust, or hospitable and of god-fearing mind.’ “So I spake, and I climbed the ship’s side, and bade my company themselves to mount, and to loose the hawsers. So they soon embarked and sat upon the benches, and sitting orderly smote the grey sea water with their oars. Now when we had come to the …
Darwin argues that centuries of unconscious and methodical human selection explain why many long-cultivated plants lack known wild ancestors, and why colonies with few “anciently civilised” traditions produced few improved plants.
what splendid fruit we should eat; though we owe our excellent fruit, in some small degree, to their having naturally chosen and preserved the best varieties they could anywhere find. A large amount of change in our cultivated plants, thus slowly and unconsciously accumulated, explains, as I believe, the well-known fact, that in a vast number of cases we cannot recognise, and therefore do not know, the wild parent-s…
He adds two principles: variation tends to reappear at the corresponding age in offspring, and measured domestic examples (dogs, horses, pigeons) show that early-life proportions often change less than adults.
our domestic animals supports this view. But in other cases it is quite possible that each successive modification, or most of them, may have appeared at an extremely early period. I have stated in the first chapter, that there is some evidence to render it probable, that at whatever age any variation first appears in the parent, it tends to reappear at a corresponding age in the offspring. Certain variations can on…
Despite generally fertile land, two-thirds of it yields only one crop that keeps laborers in debt; Du Bois illustrates with a formerly enslaved man still stuck under rent of cotton, and concludes with the tragedy of freedmen abandoning the hoe.
tools to relieve its burdensome drudgery. But with all this, it is work in the pure open air, and this is something in a day when fresh air is scarce. The land on the whole is still fertile, despite long abuse. For nine or ten months in succession the crops will come if asked: garden vegetables in April, grain in May, melons in June and July, hay in August, sweet potatoes in September, and cotton from then to Christ…
He argues the debt-mortgage system forces an all-cotton farming scheme, bankrupting tenants, and supports it with a 1898 example where many tenant families ended the year deeply in debt in Dougherty County.
the landowner his rent, subtracts his bill for supplies, and if, as sometimes happens, there is anything left, he hands it over to the black serf for his Christmas celebration. The direct result of this system is an all-cotton scheme of agriculture and the continued bankruptcy of the tenant. The currency of the Black Belt is cotton. It is a crop always salable for ready money, not usually subject to great yearly flu…
Pharaoh makes Joseph ruler over all Egypt, renames him Zaphnath Paenea, gives him Asnath, and Joseph stores abundant grain through seven plentiful years for the coming seven-year famine.
And they cried before him Abrech, and that Pharao had made him ruler over all the land of Egypt. And Pharao said unto Ioseph: I am Pharao, without thy will, shall no man lift up either his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt. And he called Ioseph's name Zaphnath Paenea. And he gave him to wife Asnath the daughter of Potiphar priest of On. Then went Ioseph abroad in the land of Egypt. And he was thirty years old whe…
Joseph presents five brothers to Pharaoh, negotiates a Goshen settlement because of famine, then administers Pharaoh’s grain policy that forces Egyptians to sell land, while Israel multiplies in Goshen.
And Ioseph went and told Pharao and said: my father and my brethren their sheep and their beasts and all that they have, are come out of the land of Canaan and are in the land of Gosan. And Ioseph took a part of his brethren: even five of them, and presented them unto Pharao. And Pharao said unto his brethren: what is your occupation? And they said unto Pharao: feeders of sheep {shepherds} are thy servants, both we a…
In Mount Sinai instructions, God establishes a land Sabbath after six years, counts seven sabbatical cycles to a fiftieth Jubilee year of liberty, and outlines land rest and agricultural non-harvest rules.
And the LORD spake unto Moses in mount Sinai saying, speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them: When ye be come in to the land which I give you, let the land rest a Sabbath unto the LORD. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt cut thy vines and gather in thy fruits. But the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the land. The LORD's Sabbath it shall be, and thou shalt neither sow…
God answers how Israel will eat during the seventh year by promising sixth-year crop blessing, then legislates land return and redemption, Jubilee release of property, and forbids usury and exploitation.
If ye shall say, what shall we eat the seventh year inasmuch as we shall not sow nor gather in our increase?. I will send my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years: and ye shall sow the eighth year and eat of old fruit until the ninth year, and even until her fruits come, ye shall eat of old store. Wherefore the land shall not be sold for ever, because that the land is min…
God forbids idols and commands Sabbath observance and reverence for the sanctuary, promising agricultural prosperity and security if Israel follows His ordinances, but curses and defeat if they disobey.
Ye shall make you no idols, nor graven image, neither rear you up any pillar, neither ye shall set up any image of stone in your land to bow your selves thereto: for I am the LORD your God; keep my Sabbaths and fear my sanctuary. For I am the LORD. If ye shall walk in mine ordinances and keep my commandments and do them, then I will send you rain in the right season and your land shall yield her increase and the tree…
Moses urges Israel to love the LORD and remember Egypt’s plagues and later wilderness judgments, teaches covenant faithfulness for land fertility, and sets blessing on Mount Gerizim and curse on Mount Ebal.
Love the LORD thy God and keep his observances, his ordinances, his laws and his commandments alway. And call to mind this day that which your children have neither known nor seen: even the nurture of the LORD your God, his greatness, his mighty hand and his stretched out arm: his miracles and his acts which he did among the Egyptians, even unto Pharao the king of Egypt and unto all his land: and what he did unto the…
Before campaigns, the Senate urges returning rural people to cultivate fields, issues edicts for Cremona and Placentia, marches consular forces into areas like Consentia and Lucania, and notes a brief clash that leads to Roman subjection without contest.
human neglect, yet it was thought proper that it should be expiated with victims of the larger sort, and that a supplication should be made at the temple of Vesta. Before the consuls set out for the campaign, they were cautioned by the senate to take care that the common people should be brought back into the country; for since, through the goodness of the gods, the war was removed from the city of Rome and Latium, …
After the First Congress, Herzl pursues creation of the Jewish Colonial Bank, later writes the propaganda novel Altneuland, and describes a near-future Palestine with irrigation, cooperative technology, and Arab-Jewish coexistence.
in other peoples. In this way they manage to remain erect and genuine. Looking on them, we understood where our forefathers got the strength to endure through the bitterest times." Immediately after the First Congress, Herzl grappled with his second task, the creation of the Jewish Colonial Bank. He wrote of the bank in *Die Welt* in November, 1898, "The task of the Colonial Bank is to eliminate philanthropy. The se…
In late 1902, Herzl’s Sinai negotiations expand through Lords Lansdowne and Cromer, producing conditions about commissions, defense costs, and settler citizenship, followed by a difficult commission report judging land as unsuitable without irrigation.
offices of Chamberlain, it became possible for Herzl to meet Lord Lansdowne a few days later. He was well received and was listened to with a great deal of attention. Herzl was asked to submit a written expose. Then he asked for permission to have Leopold J. Greenberg go to Egypt and confer with Lord Cromer. Lord Lansdowne said that he would arrange for such a meeting. Greenberg discussed the matter with Lord Cromer…
The Jewish Company is to manage non-transferable goods like buildings and land by arranging sales, taking over abandoned estates, collecting rents, and trading property to replace old assets with new ones while profiting from risk and land development.
NON-TRANSFERABLE GOODS The non-transferable goods which come under consideration are buildings, land, and local business connections. The Jewish Company will at first take upon itself no more than the necessary negotiations for effecting the sale of these goods. These Jewish sales will take place freely and without any serious fall in prices. The Company's branch establishments in various towns will become the centr…
Herzl lays out how the new Jewish migration should occupy land scientifically: geologists and engineers replace chance, representatives take possession by ship, natural resources are inventoried, administration centralized, and land distributed via auctions paid in work.
THE OCCUPATION OF THE LAND When nations wandered in historic times, they let chance carry them, draw them, fling them hither and thither, and like swarms of locusts they settled down indifferently anywhere. For in historic times the earth was not known to man. But this modern Jewish migration must proceed in accordance with scientific principles. Not more than forty years ago gold-digging was carried on in an extra…
Hamilton explains that taxing duties are limited by consumption and proposes that direct taxes can use simple standards like population, while emphasizing the practical difficulties of valuing land.
others would scarcely be conscious of the small proportion of the weight they were required to sustain. This, however, is an evil inseparable from the principle of quotas and requisitions. There is no method of steering clear of this inconvenience, but by authorizing the national government to raise its own revenues in its own way. Imposts, excises, and, in general, all duties upon articles of consumption, may be co…
Aeneas follows Anchises’s instructions: he deselects the cowardly women and old men, reorganizes resources to sail, founds a city near the Eryx temple, honors Anchises as a god, and sets out with renewed winds.
of heav’n’s approaching light.” He said, and mix’d with shades, and took his airy flight. “Whither so fast?” the filial duty cried; “And why, ah why, the wish’d embrace denied?” He said, and rose; as holy zeal inspires, He rakes hot embers, and renews the fires; His country gods and Vesta then adores With cakes and incense, and their aid implores. Next, for his friends and royal host he sent,…
It legislates guidance about vineyards, palms, agriculture taxes (pay due on harvest day), rules for livestock and pair-based animals, bans certain prohibited foods, and enacts general ethical commands about parents, orphans, justice, and covenants.
foolishly slain their children, and have forbidden that which God hath given them for food, devising an untruth against God! Now have they erred; and they were not rightly guided. He it is who produceth gardens of the vine trellised and untrellised, and the palm trees, and the corn of various food, and olives, and pomegranates, like and unlike. Eat of their fruit when they bear fruit, and pay the due thereof on the …
Equiano claims trade focuses on provisions, notes markets visited by “Oye-Eboe” men bringing firearms and goods while bartering for odoriferous woods and salt, and describes agriculture producing cotton and tobacco alongside constant labor and few beggars.
man is a sufficient architect for the purpose. The whole neighbourhood afford their unanimous assistance in building them and in return receive, and expect no other recompense than a feast. As we live in a country where nature is prodigal of her favours, our wants are few and easily supplied; of course we have few manufactures. They consist for the most part of calicoes, earthern ware, ornaments, and instruments of …
Equiano charts a voyage from Antigua/Montserrat to Jamaica, takes Musquito Prince George to church, observes market activity, buys enslaved labor for cultivation, then sails to the Musquito shore at Dupeupy.
On the fifth of January we made Antigua and Montserrat, and ran along the rest of the islands: and on the fourteenth we arrived at Jamaica. One Sunday while we were there I took the Musquito Prince George to church, where he saw the sacrament administered. When we came out we saw all kinds of people, almost from the church door for the space of half a mile down to the waterside, buying and selling all kinds of commod…
In May 1881 Washington is appointed to lead a normal school at Tuskegee, travels from West Virginia to Alabama, and describes Tuskegee’s Black Belt setting and the poverty of facilities for teaching.
Early Days At Tuskegee During the time that I had charge of the Indians and the night-school at Hampton, I pursued some studies myself, under the direction of the instructors there. One of these instructors was the Rev. Dr. H.B. Frissell, the present Principal of the Hampton Institute, General Armstrong’s successor. In May, 1881, near the close of my first year in teaching the night-school, in a way that I had not …
He details Tuskegee’s suitability for a school, explains the Black Belt’s meaning, describes the state’s $2,000 salary-only appropriation, and recounts early instruction in a dilapidated shanty and church.
my disappointment, I found nothing of the kind. I did find, though, that which no costly building and apparatus can supply,—hundreds of hungry, earnest souls who wanted to secure knowledge. Tuskegee seemed an ideal place for the school. It was in the midst of the great bulk of the Negro population, and was rather secluded, being five miles from the main line of railroad, with which it was connected by a short line. …
Washington explains the need for Tuskegee to teach hygiene, farming, and practical skills as student ambitions shift toward avoiding manual labor; he includes an Alabama sermon-joke and the search for a farm site near Tuskegee.
districts and show the people there how to put new energy and new ideas into farming, as well as into the intellectual and moral and religious life of the people. All these ideas and needs crowded themselves upon us with a seriousness that seemed well-nigh overwhelming. What were we to do? We had only the little old shanty and the abandoned church which the good coloured people of the town of Tuskegee had kindly loa…
After securing funds for an abandoned plantation near Tuskegee, Washington moves the school there, describes improvising spaces like the stable and hen-house for classes, and leads students to clear land for farming while planning repayment.
Marshall for seemed a tremendously large sum to me. The fact of my being responsible for the repaying of such a large amount of money weighed very heavily upon me. I lost no time in getting ready to move the school on to the new farm. At the time we occupied the place there were standing upon it a cabin, formerly used as a dining room, an old kitchen, a stable, and an old hen-house. Within a few weeks we had all of …
Olivia Davidson raises money through public festivals and donations from both Black and white Tuskegee residents, including gifts from former slaves and a seventy-year-old woman offering eggs for students’ education.
apply to a single white family, so far as I now remember, that failed to donate something; and in many ways the white families showed their interest in the school. Several of these festivals were held, and quite a little sum of money was raised. A canvass was also made among the people of both races for direct gifts of money, and most of those applied to gave small sums. It was often pathetic to note the gifts of th…
Castruccio of Lucca takes Pistoia by backing factional leaders, then sends help to Enrico in Rome, restores order by supplying grain from Pisa, and is made a Roman senator with a religiously framed inscription on his toga.
trusted. Then for his further security he raised a fortress in Lucca with the stones of the towers of those whom he had killed or hunted out of the state. Whilst Castruccio made peace with the Florentines, and strengthened his position in Lucca, he neglected no opportunity, short of open war, of increasing his importance elsewhere. It appeared to him that if he could get possession of Pistoia, he would have one foot…
The civic rules extend to cleanliness and public life: daily street sweeping, removal of refuse outside the city, control of unwholesome food, killing stray animals, and prohibiting gatherings.
‘That the brewers and tippling-houses be looked into for musty and unwholesome casks. ‘That no hogs, dogs, or cats, or tame pigeons, or ponies, be suffered to be kept within any part of the city, or any swine to be or stray in the streets or lanes, but that such swine be impounded by the beadle or any other officer, and the owner punished according to Act of Common Council, and that the dogs …
In early August the plague worsens in the narrator’s neighborhood; Dr. Heath urges him to lock in his household, keep windows closed, make smoke as protection, and stock bread, beer, butter, and cheese.
and as he was a good Christian as well as a good physician, his agreeable conversation was a very great support to me in the worst of this terrible time. It was now the beginning of August, and the plague grew very violent and terrible in the place where I lived, and Dr Heath coming to visit me, and finding that I ventured so often out in the streets, earnestly persuaded me to lock myself up and my…
Du Bois provides economic and administrative specifics about black Africa’s resources and schooling, depicts exploitation’s logic as industrial slavery-by-proxy, and warns that without labor protections “slavery in all but name” will expand.
exchange there was being returned to Africa one hundred millions in cotton cloth, twenty-five millions in iron and steel, and as much in foods, and probably twenty-five millions in liquors. Here are the beginnings of a modern industrial system: iron and steel for permanent investment, bound to yield large dividends; cloth as the cheapest exchange for invaluable raw material; liquor to tickle the appetites of the nat…
Agricultural and regulatory statutes follow, covering wells, planting distances, pits and ditches, beehives spacing, export restrictions (only oil), dog-bite accountability, naturalization rules, hospitality, and the wooden law tables sworn by councils.
affection which an husband ought to pay to a virtuous, chaste wife; it takes off all petty differences, and will not permit their little quarrels to proceed to a rupture. In all other marriages he forbade dowries to be given; the wife was to have three suits of clothes, a little inconsiderable household stuff, and that was all; for he would not have marriages contracted for gain or an estate, but for pure love, kind…
Plutarch describes Cato managing slaves with strict isolation, punishment, and controlled reproduction, investing in agriculture and ponds, and using sea-venture risk-sharing through partners and loans.
Scipio; nor was he admitted into this family less for his own worth than his father's. So that Cato's care in his son's education came to a very fitting result. He purchased a great many slaves out of the captives taken in war, but chiefly bought up the young ones, who were capable to be, as it were, broken and taught like whelps and colts. None of these ever entered another man's house, except sent either by Cato …
Cato authors books on country life, hosts neighbors at a plentiful table to make friends, forbids insulting talk of citizens, and is said to advocate the renewed destruction of Carthage.
the family of one who had been consul, and had triumphed; but perceiving him in earnest, he consented willingly; and, going onwards to the forum, they quickly completed the bargain. Whilst the marriage was in hand, Cato's son, taking some of his friends along with him, went and asked his father if it were for any offense he brought in a stepmother upon him? But Cato cried out, "Far from it, my son, I have no fault …
Pompey enters Amisus and repeats administrative reward-giving while contemplating wider conquests toward the Red Sea, then orders a naval blockade at Bosporus, and buries Triarius’s dead while making Syria a Roman province.
he was a man in nothing like himself; or perhaps it might be to gratify Pompey, whose father is described by Rutilius in his history, as the vilest man alive. From thence Pompey came to the city of Amisus, where his passion for glory put him into a position which might be called a punishment on himself. For whereas he had often sharply reproached Lucullus, in that while the enemy was still living, he had taken upon…
Tiberius Gracchus becomes tribune and pursues a land reform limiting holdings to 500 acres, countering wealthy encroachment that depopulated free farmers, with advice from prominent legal and religious figures and pressure from public writings.
misfortunes, if Scipio had been concerned in dealing with his measures; but he was away fighting at Numantia, when Tiberius, upon the following occasion, first came forward as a legislator. Of the land which the Romans gained by conquest from their neighbors, part they sold publicly, and turned the remainder into common; this common land they assigned to such of the citizens as were poor and indigent, for which they…
This passage is a short repeated citation identifying Sir John Sinclair’s revenue history and the land-tax amount in 1646.
[Footnote 30: See Sir John Sinclair's History of the Revenue. The land-tax in 1646 was L2,473,499.] [Footnote 31: Several of the court newspapers have of late made frequent mention of Wat Tyler. That his memory should be traduced by court sycophants and an those who live on the spoil of a public is not to be wondered at. He was, however, the means of checking the rage and injustice of taxation in his time, and the n…
Dorothea describes managing her parents’ estates and daily work—farm, oil-mills, wine-presses, herds, and beehives—while filling leisure with needlework, reading devotional books, and playing the harp.
for their daughter; and as they have no other child to make their heir, and are affectionate parents, I was one of the most indulged daughters that ever parents indulged. “I was the mirror in which they beheld themselves, the staff of their old age, and the object in which, with submission to Heaven, all their wishes centred, and mine were in accordance with theirs, for I knew their worth; and as I was mistress of t…
Ricardo’s preface argues that rent, profit, and wages depend on soil fertility, capital accumulation, and agricultural technique, and he claims that better rent doctrine was needed—especially after Malthus and Oxford’s “Fellow.”
ON VALUE. It has been observed by Adam Smith, that "the word Value has two different meanings, and sometimes expresses the utility of some particular object, and sometimes the power of purchasing other goods which the possession of that object conveys. The one may be called *value in use*; the other, *value in exchange*. The things," he continues, "which have the greatest value in use, have frequently little or no v…
Ricardo explains rent’s emergence as population expands and inferior lands are cultivated, using analogies to air and water and giving a three-tier land example to show how rent shifts across qualities.
rent of land, I wish to be understood as speaking of that compensation, which is paid to the owner of land for the use of its original and indestructible powers. On the first settling of a country, in which there is an abundance of rich and fertile land, a very small proportion of which is required to be cultivated for the support of the actual population, or indeed can be cultivated with the capital which the popul…
He continues the three-land example, showing that once worse land is required rent begins on better land, and that advances in productivity on existing land can still create additional rent via the difference between equal capitals.
oblige a country to have recourse to land of a worse quality, to enable it to raise its supply of food, rent, on all the more fertile land, will rise. Thus suppose land--No. 1, 2, 3,--to yield, with an equal employment of capital and labour, a net produce of 100, 90, and 80 quarters of corn. In a new country, where there is an abundance of fertile land compared with the population, and where therefore it is only nec…
Ricardo explains rent as rising only when additional capital yields diminishing returns on land, so later capital pays no rent and rent comes from the gap between outputs.
original tenant refused, some other person would be found willing to give all which exceeded that rate of profit to the owner of the land from which he derived it. In this case, as well as in the other, the capital last employed pays no rent. For the greater productive powers of the first 1000*l.*, fifteen quarters is paid for rent, for the employment of the second 1000*l.* no rent whatever is paid. If a third 1000*…
He argues that corn’s value is regulated by the labour needed on the least-rent-paying land, so rent is paid because corn is high, not the other way round.
usual and general rate of profits on stock; and that could only happen when his commodity sold for a price proportioned to the quantity of labour bestowed on its production.[6] It is true, that on the best land, the same produce would still be obtained with the same labour as before, but its value would be enhanced in consequence of the diminished returns obtained by those who employed fresh labour and stock on the …
Ricardo links rising rent to a country’s wealth and population growth under food-supply constraints, then claims wealth can rise even as rent falls, without rent causing wealth.
manufactured, not only by that machinery, but by all the other machinery in the kingdom; and a rent would be paid to all those who possessed the most productive machinery.[7] The rise of rent is always the effect of the increasing wealth of the country, and of the difficulty of providing food for its augmented population. It is a symptom, but it is never a cause of wealth; for wealth often increases most rapidly whi…
He shows agricultural improvements can lower rent by avoiding cultivation of poorer land, and distinguishes improvements that raise land’s powers from those that reduce labour use.
shall have the same effect of diminishing the necessity of cultivating the poorer lands, or of expending the same amount of capital on the cultivation of the more fertile portions. If a million of quarters of corn be necessary for the support of a given population, and it be raised on land of the qualities of No. 1, 2, 3; and if an improvement be afterwards discovered by which it can be raised on No. 1 and 2, withou…
Ricardo uses examples to argue that if improvements equalize returns across capital employed, rent falls, while changes increasing inequality in returns raise rent.
of an improvement to diminish the quantity of labour before required to produce a commodity; and this diminution cannot take place without a fall of its price or relative value. The improvements which increase the productive powers of the land, are such as the more skilful rotation of crops, or the better choice of manure. These improvements absolutely enable us to obtain the same produce from a smaller quantity of …
He distinguishes improvements in land productivity from efficiency in tools and capital formation, claiming such changes may lower corn rent only when they reduce differences between productive capitals.
115 = 10 } adequate to the wants of the { 115 -- } population, for it would be 345 { 105 30 } quarters, or { --- { 345 the demand being only for 340 quarters.--But there are improvements which may lower the relative value of produce without lowering the corn rent, though they will lower the money rent of land. Such improvements do not increase the productive powers of the land, but they enable us to obtain its produ…
Ricardo extends his rent principle to mines, asserting metals’ value depends on total labour to extract and transport, with rent as the consequence of higher returns.
ON THE RENT OF MINES. The metals, like other things, are obtained by labour. Nature, indeed, produces them; but it is the labour of man which extracts them from the bowels of the earth, and prepares them for our service. Mines, as well as land, generally pay a rent to their owner; and this rent, as well as the rent of land, is the effect, and never the cause of the high value of their produce. If there were abunda…
Ricardo argues that accumulation requires both more physical output and higher total value because new land is harder to produce, and in large economies landlords gain while profits fall and laborers’ real condition worsens.
6 per cent., 66,000*l.* or a diminution of 4000*l.* will be received by the owners of stock, although the whole amount of stock will be increased from 1,000,000*l.* to 1,100,000*l.* There can, however, be no accumulation of capital, so long as stock yields any profit at all, without its yielding not only an increase of produce, but an increase of value. By employing 100,000*l.* additional capital, no part of the for…
He claims that even when output rises, a larger share of value after rent goes to wages rather than profits once poor land is cultivated or capital is extended on existing land, due to limits on land productivity.
real gainers would be the landlords; they would receive higher rents, first, because produce would be of a higher value, and secondly, because they would have a greatly increased proportion. Although a greater value is produced, a greater proportion of what remains of that value, after paying rent, is consumed by the producers, and it is this, and this alone, which regulates profits. Whilst the land yields abundantl…
Ricardo restates that profits depend on the labor needed to produce necessaries on land that yields no rent, contrasting countries by fertility and food import policy, and maintaining high wages reduce employers’ real profits.
value of a smaller proportion will be devoted to profits. This will necessarily be rendered permanent by the laws of nature, which have limited the productive powers of the land. Thus we again arrive at the same conclusion which we have before attempted to establish:--that in all countries, and at all times, profits depend on the quantity of labour requisite to provide necessaries for the labourers, on that land or …
Using a three-tract land example, Ricardo shows how a per-quarter corn tax increases corn prices, concentrates the burden on worse land, and reduces corn rent, while lowering laborers’ real flexibility through higher wages and consumer costs.
Now if the price of corn were 4*l.* per quarter, the money rent of No. 1 would be 80*l.*, and that of No. 2, 40*l.* Suppose a tax of 8*s.* per quarter to be imposed on corn; then the price would rise to 4*l.* 8*s.*; and if the landlords obtained the same corn rent as before, the rent of No. 1 would be 88*l.*, and that of No. 2, 44*l.* But they would not obtain the same corn rent; the tax would fall heavier on No. 1 …
Ricardo addresses objections to corn taxes—unequal effects, delay between corn and wages, discouraged accumulation, and trade disadvantage—then argues policy can offset inequality and that wage adjustments vary by cause.
if wages had been raised from the increased demand for labour compared with the supply, or from an increasing difficulty of obtaining the food and necessaries required by the labourer. In as far as the tax might affect consumers, it would be an equal tax, but in as far as it would affect profits, it would be a partial tax; for it would neither operate on the landlord nor on the stockholder, since they would continue…
Ricardo explains how rising corn prices can follow rising wages when demand increases, with population responding via marriage and children, and how corn prices later depend on land quality used for additional supply.
in which wages are expressed. In this case then the distress of the labourer is unavoidable, and no legislation can afford a remedy, except by the importation of additional food. When a high price of corn is the effect of an increasing demand, it is always preceded by an increase of wages, for demand cannot increase, without an increase of means in the people to pay for that which they desire. An accumulation of cap…
Ricardo defends taxes on raw produce by claiming they need not reduce corn quantity or the laborer’s real wages, because any tax-driven shortfall would correct via price changes and capital shifting.
necessarily any excess in the supply of labour, nor any abatement of demand, and therefore there can be no reason why the labourer should sustain a real diminution of wages. A tax on corn does not necessarily diminish the quantity of corn, it only raises its money price; it does not necessarily diminish the demand compared with the supply of labour; why then should it diminish the portion paid to the labourer? Suppo…
In a section on taxes on rent, Ricardo argues such taxes fall wholly on landlords because rent depends on land quality differentials; he also distinguishes buildings/fixtures payments from true land rent.
TAXES ON RENT. A tax on rent would affect rent only; it would fall wholly on landlords, and could not be shifted to any class of consumers. The landlord could not raise his rent, because he would leave unaltered the difference between the produce obtained from the least productive land in cultivation, and that obtained from land of every other quality. Three sorts of land, No. 1, 2, and 3, are in cultivation, and yi…
Ricardo explains tithes as an equal tax on gross produce that raises the money price of corn and shifts burdens to consumers, with effects changing in stationary, retrograde, or improving societies.
TITHES. Tithes are a tax on the gross produce of the land, and, like taxes on raw produce, fall wholly on the consumer. They differ from a tax on rent, inasmuch as they affect land which such a tax would not reach; and raise the price of raw produce, which that tax e of raw produce, which that tax would not alter. Lands of the worst quality, as well as of the best, pay tithes, and exactly in proportion to the quanti…
Ricardo says land taxes can discourage cultivation only indirectly by raising commodity prices, but he also defends taxation as long as it doesn’t erode capital; he discusses how Britain’s land-tax becomes unequal over time due to outdated valuations.
are incapable of paying taxes; this portion is exclusively borne by all those whose income is derived from the employment of stock, and therefore it in no degree affects landlords. It is not to be inferred from this view of tithes, and taxes on the land and its produce, that they do not discourage cultivation. Every thing which raises the exchangeable value of commodities of any kind, which are in very general deman…
Ricardo contends that if no land tax were imposed but the state raised the same sum otherwise, agriculture would do at least as well, and he disputes Say’s defense of taxing in kind as more equitable.
net produce of land, it would be equally a tax on consumption, and would only affect the landlord and farmer in the same way as other taxes on raw produce. If no tax whatever had been laid on the land, and the same sum had been raised by any other means, agriculture would have flourished at least as well as it has done; for it is impossible that any tax on land can be an encouragement to agriculture; a moderate tax …
Ricardo explains that taxes on houses, though paid by occupiers, tend to reduce rent paid to landlords, because housing supply is relatively fixed while demand responds to the tax.
TAXES ON HOUSES. There are also other commodities besides gold which cannot be speedily reduced in quantity; any tax on which will therefore fall on the proprietor, if the increase of price should lessen the demand. Taxes on houses are of this description; though laid on the occupier, they will frequently fall by a diminution of rent on the landlord. The produce of the land is consumed and reproduced from year to y…