Note 149-2 — Chapter II

The stores of immediate plant food in a piece of land, of minerals in a mine, of salt in a salt mine, etc., are subject to the law of rent only in so far as they may be considered inexhaustible; that is, they are not, strictly speaking, subject to it. Our definition applies all the more to the capacity for cultivation, and of support or bearing capacity mentioned in § 35; and hence it is easier to follow the law of rent in the case of land used for building purposes than for agriculture. When v. Mangoldt claims that the exhaustibility or inexhaustibility of the soil has nothing to do with rent so long as it flows evenly (so lange sie eben fliesst) he is in harmony with his own general conception of rarity-premiums (Seltenheitsprämien).