Author: Karl Marx
Translator(s)/ Edito: Utsa Patnaik
Publisher: LeftWord
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 319
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8187496592
Description
Modern economic writings do not possess a correct theory of rent arising specifically from ownership of landed property. This conceptual famine has seriously affected the analysis of agriculture in developing economies, where agriculture employs two-thirds of the work force, and where three-fifths of the land is owned by less than a tenth of the landowners. It also hampers us in understanding the agrarian crisis that is engulfing many countries of the Third World.
The selections of readings put together in this volume is in three parts. The first part deals with Marx's writings on pre-capitalist relationship, and that aspect of the primitive accumulation of capital which relates to the formation of a property less labor force. The second part is devoted to the Marxist theory of rent, in particular to understanding the crucial distinction made by Marx between what he termed 'absolute ground rent', and Ricardo's concept, which he termed differential rent The third part relates to the process of capitalist development in agriculture and the formation of a class of capitalist producers.
The editor's erudite and lucid introduction lays out the terrain of the argument and makes Marx's theory of rent more accessible and comprehensible to the lay reader.
Contents
Introduction
THE PRIMITIVE ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL
The Secret of Primitive Accumulation
Expropriation of the Agricultural Population from the Land
Bloody Legislation Against the Expropriated,
from the 15th Century. Forcing Down of Wages by Acts of Parliament
Genesis of the Capitalist Farmer
Reaction of the Agricultural Revolution on Industry. Creation of the Home-Market for Industrial Capital
Pre-
Capitalist Relationships
THE THEORYOF GROUND RENT
Differential Rent: General Remarks
First Form of Differential Rent
(Differential Rent I)
Second Form of Differential Rent (Differential Rent II)
Absolute Ground Rent
Building Site Rent. Rent in Mining. Price of Land
Ricardo's Denial of Absolute Rent - A Result of his error in the Theory of Value
The Inadequacy of the Ricardian Definition of Rent
Ricardo's Criticism of Adam Smith's and Malthus's Views on Rent
Richard Jones
THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALIST RELATIONS IN AGRICULTURE
The Capitalist Character of Modern Agriculture
Large and Small Farms
Review of Kautsky's Die Agarfrage
Capitalism in Agriculture (Kautsky's Book and Mr. Bulgakov's Article
Index