Progress and Poverty, Volumes I and II: An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of WealthGeorge, Henry
General
Progress and Poverty, Volumes I and II: An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth
George, Henry
Economics; Single tax
But while the increase of population thus increases rent by lowering
the margin of cultivation, it is a mistake to look upon this as the
only mode by which rent advances as population grows. Increasing
population increases rent, without reducing the margin of cultivation;
and notwithstanding the dicta of such writers as McCulloch, who assert
that rent would not arise were there an unbounded extent of equally
good land, increases it without reference to the natural qualities of
land, for the increased powers of co-operation and exchange which come
with increased population are equivalent to—nay, I think we can say
without metaphor, that they give—an increased capacity to land.
I do not mean to say merely that, like an improvement in the methods
or tools of production, the increased power which comes with increased
population gives to the same labor an increased result, which is
equivalent to an increase in the natural powers of land; but that
it brings out a superior power in labor, which is localized on
land—which attaches not to labor generally, but only to labor exerted
on particular land; and which thus inheres in the land as much as any
qualities of soil, climate, mineral deposit, or natural situation, and
passes, as they do, with the possession of the land.
An improvement in the method of cultivation which, with the same
outlay, will give two crops a year in place of one, or an improvement
in tools and machinery which will double the result of labor, will
manifestly, on a particular piece of ground, have the same effect
on the produce as a doubling of the fertility of the land. But the
difference is in this respect—the improvement in method or in tools
can be utilized on any land; but the improvement in fertility can be
utilized only on the particular land to which it applies. Now, in large
part, the increased productiveness of labor which arises from increased
population can be utilized only on particular land, and on particular
land in greatly varying degrees.
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