Technical Progress, Costs and Rent

OVER one hundred and twenty years ago, Ricardo in his Principles2 set forth the proposition that technical progress could have two possible effects upon the rent of land. Either his study was so thorough that the topic was thought to be closed, or else the subject was not felt to be of sufficient importance; for, during the intervening century, few significant alterations or additions were made to his thesis. It is only within the last few years that this problem has again been taken up, perhaps unwittingly. The new traveller upon an old, but obscured, trail is Professor Cassels, who deals with it in his article, On the Law of Variable Proportions, which appeared in Explorations in Economics in 1936. Without seeming to realise the application of his analysis to Ricardo's problem, Cassels changes only slightly Ricardo's illustrations: Ricardo's manure becomes Cassels' water ; Cassels' scarecrow is a reincarnation of Ricardo's improvements in agricultural implements .3 A comparison of the two explanations is not only enlightening for economic theory, but also it has this merit: it makes one appreciate more the keen insight of Ricardo, who was able to deal with the difficult problem despite the fact that economics as a science was still in its infancy

Economics · Political Economy and Marxism

• Keeping the faith

  Open Access•William Ascher•Policy Sciences•2017

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