Note 414 — Chapter I · : SISMONDI AND THE ORIGINS OF THE CRITICAL SCHOOL

Ibid., p. 235. This problem of the net and gross produce occupied Sismondi’s attention for a long time. We find a suggestion of it in his first work, Le Tableau de l’Agriculture toscane (Geneva, 1801), and though he does not definitely take the side of the gross produce, he shows some leanings that way. “Why is the gain of a single rich farmer considered more profitable for a State than the miserable earnings of several thousand workers and peasants?” The book, however, is a treatise on practical agriculture, and includes only a few economic dicta. It is here that we have his beautiful description of his farm at Val Chiuso (p. 219).