APPENDIX C
171
and sense will appear in place of what may have been pronounced
foolishness.
C
THE DISPROPORTIONATE TREATMENT OF AGRICULTURAL RENTS
BY ECONOMISTS
Has not agricultural rent, as a somewhat natural result of
the fact that Ricardo’s law of rent was specifically expressed
and illustrated in agricultural terms, received undue attention
from the schools, to the neglect of urban or city rent in its
more acute forms ?
Out of a curiosity to ascertain the actual preponderance
accorded to agricultural over urban rent in standard economic
treatises, the writer has instituted careful comparisons of the
space devoted by the authorities to agricultural land and to
urban land respectively in treating questions bearing on land
values and land rent. The result shows that in thirty-four
leading works of thirty authors, 42,094 lines were given to
agricultural rents, and 2,919 lines to urban rent,* a ratio of
fourteen to one.
Following is the list complete:
Author and Work At
Text
lines
Adams, H. C., The Science of
Finance, 1887 803
Andrews, E. B., Institutes of Economics,
1889 3°
Bullock, C. J., Introduction to the
Study of Economics, 1897 . . - 57°
Cairnes, J. E., Some Leading Principles
of Political Economy, 1874 • *35
♦Where agriculture has been considered for other purposes than value
and rent of land, it has been omitted from the comparison. The line of
distinction is sometimes drawn with difficulty, and in one or two cases, where
the argument has seemed to bear equally on agricultural and urban land, it
has been included under both heads. In view of the liability to error in such
a comparison, this list is circulated in the hope that interested parties may
supply any authorities which ought not to be omitted, and note any corrections
in the readings for future publication and reference.
ICULTURAD
Notes Total
lines lines
Urban
Text Notes
lines lines
Total
lines
6
809
36
36
26
5 6
is
24
39
3
573
81
7
88
26
161
