Principles of Political EconomyPerry, Arthur Latham
General
Principles of Political Economy
Perry, Arthur Latham
Economics
(g) All valuable land-parcels are material Commodities, made to be
such by onerous human efforts of some sort expended upon or in some
connection with the free Utilities furnished by Nature; the utilities
are one thing in origin and function, and the values are a very
different thing both in origin and function; and the present point is,
that nearly all valuable lands everywhere are Capital also, that is to
say, products reserved to aid in a further and future production.
Capital is a relatively small class under the immensely large class
Values. Capital is by no means coincident with Commodities, since vast
lines of the latter are consumed with no reference to a further
production by means of their use. But capital is always either
commodities or claims, and valuable bits of land are always
commodities and nearly always capital; because all tillage and pasture
lands, all forests grown for wood and timber, and lands of all sorts
rented or held for resale at a higher price, are capital under the
definition, are "_products reserved as an aid to further production_."
The peculiarity of all farming lands is this, they are themselves
commodities, in whose creation God's free gifts and men's onerous
labors have conspired; and they are held in reserve by their owners as
capital, for the sake of producing by their means with the help of
more of God's free gifts further valuable commodities, such as grain,
and fruit and timber. Farms in their highest reach of previous culture
still need for crops the sun and the rain. Indeed the sun is the most
useful and powerful force in the world. Oh! how it warms and lifts and
quickens! Give it and the rain and the dew but a fair chance on lands
properly prepared for them, and endless fields blossom like the rose
and are white to the harvest!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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