Principles of Political Economy, Vol. 1Roscher, Wilhelm
History
Principles of Political Economy, Vol. 1
Roscher, Wilhelm
Economics
As land, in its uncultivated state, has neither been produced by man, nor
can be entirely consumed by him, the above demonstration of the necessity
of private property cannot without any more ado, be extended to land.(519)
Hence, individual property in land is everywhere much more recent than
individual property in capital.(520)
But a certain expenditure of capital and labor is necessary that land may
be used productively, and, in most instances, this employment of capital
and labor is of long duration, irrevocable in the very nature of things,
and one the fruits of which can be reaped only after some time has
elapsed. Now, this cooperation of capital and labor is such, that no one
would undertake to employ them in the cultivation of the land, had he not
the strongest assurance of possessing it. Hence, agriculture in its most
rudimentary stage supposes ownership of the land, at least from the time
that it is “tickled with the hoe,” until it “smiles with the harvest;” or,
to express it more accurately, all the time intervening between the work
of the plow and the labor of the sickle. The more, afterwards, population
and civilization increase, the more products must be wrung from the soil.
But this can be accomplished only by means of its more _intensive_
cultivation (higher farming), by lavishing a greater amount of capital and
labor on it, and, as a rule, by extending the circle of agricultural
operations by means of combinations more and more artificial. Hence, the
progress of civilization demands an ever increasing fixity, and a more
pronounced shaping of landed property (the _specification_ of jurists), in
the interests of all who share in this progress, and even of those who own
no landed property themselves. Were there no property in land, every one
would find it more difficult and laborious to gratify his want of
agricultural products;(521) and the products themselves would be of an
inferior kind.
Thus, for instance, in Camargo, the lackmus was formerly prepared from
plants to be had “free” in the woods. It was then, however, much dearer
than it is now that the plants are artificially raised on landed
property.(522) It is otherwise with the fisheries. The appropriation of
rivers or seas would not tend to increase the abundance of their products,
and hence this appropriation is, on the whole, rare.(523)
Section LXXXVIII.
Landed Property. (Continued.)
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