Note 1164 — Chapter II · : THE THEORY OF RENT AND ITS APPLICATIONS

Pantaleoni makes the same distinction: “Profits,” says he, “may be the result of superior ability acquired either by assiduous study or prolonged preparation. In that case we are dealing, not with a kind of rent, but with a species of profit which may be very remunerative but which is nevertheless amenable to a very different law from that which generally regulates the investment of capital.” (Economia pura, Part III, chap. 4.) On the other hand, Pantaleoni refuses to recognise the existence of an element of insurance against risk as an item in profits, because, as he points out, if the premium has been carefully reckoned up and compared with the risk, “it ought on an average to be equal to it at the end of a certain number of years, so that the net rent would become equal to zero.” (Ibid.)