Page:Karl Marx - The Poverty of Philosophy - (tr. Harry Quelch) - 1913.djvu/186

 land. Then, the proprietor receives this part of the farm hire not as landlord, but as capitalist; that is, however, not the rent, properly speaking, with which we have to deal.

Land, so long as it is not exploited as a means of production, is not capital. Capital in land can be augmented as well as all other means of production. Nothing is added to the material, to speak the language of M. Proudhon, but the soils which serve as instruments of production are multiplied. By merely applying additional capital to land already transformed into means of production land-capital may be augmented without adding anything to the material land, that is to say to the extent of the land. The material land of M. Proudhon has the bounds of the earth for its limits. As to the eternity which he attributes to land we readily grant that, as matter, it has this quality. As capital, land is not more eternal than any other capital.

Gold and silver, which pay interest, are as durable and eternal as land. If the price of gold and silver falls while that of land rises, that is certainly not due to the more or less eternal nature of land.

Land-capital is a fixed capital, but fixed capital is used up as well as circulating capital. The improvements effected in the soil need to be reproduced and maintained; they only last a certain time, a quality which they possess in common with all other improvements of which use is made in order to transform matter into means of production. If land-capital were eternal certain lands would present an entirely different aspect to that which they bear to-day, and we should see the Roman Campagna, Sicily, and Palestine, in all the splendor of their ancient prosperity.

There are, moreover, cases where land-capital may