Note 319 — Chapter III · : THE PESSIMISTS

“Nothing is more common than to hear of the advantages which the land possesses over every other source of useful produce on account of the surplus which it yields in the form of rent. Yet when land is most abundant, when most productive and most fertile, it yields no rent, and it is only when its powers decay … that rent appears.” (Principles, ed. Gonner, p. 52.)