Page:Karl Marx - The Poverty of Philosophy - (tr. Harry Quelch) - 1913.djvu/185

 which results the improvement in the usages of the soil. .....Such, in its essence, is rent." (Vol. II., p. 265.)

This time, M. Proudhon sees in rent all the attributes of interest, so far as it arises from a capital of a specific nature. This capital is land, eternal capital, "which is not susceptible of any increase as to its material, but only to an indefinite improvement in its use." In the progressive march of civilisation interest has a constant tendency to fall, while rent constantly tends to rise. Interest falls on account of the abundance of capital; rent rises with the improvements made in industry which have the effect of constantly improving the use of land.

Such is, in its essence, the opinion of M. Proudhon.

Let us begin by examining at what point it is correct to say that rent is the interest on capital.

For the landowner himself rent represents interest on the capital which the land has cost him, or which it would return to him if he sold it. But in buying or selling land, he only buys or sells rent. The price which he has paid in order to acquire the rent is regulated by the general rate of interest and has nothing to do with the nature of rent itself. The interest on capital invested in land is, in general, less than the interest on capital sunk in manufacture or commerce. Thus for him who does not distinguish the interest which land represents to the proprietor from rent itself, the interest on capital in land diminishes much more than the interest on other capitals. But it is not here a question of the price of the sale or purchase of rent, of the saleable value of rent, of capitalized rent, it is a question of rent itself.

The hire of a farm may imply in addition to the rent properly so-called, interest on capital incorporated in the