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Abstract
Marx’s theory of rent is usually regarded to be represented in the text of Part VI of Book III of Capital, which was originally a chapter in his manuscript written in 1865 on the basis of the manuscript of 1861–1863, into which the theory of rent slipped by accident in the course of its writing. The present article elucidates such particular circumstances relating to the making of Marx’s theory of rent composed of two forms, differential and absolute, based on the new MEGA volumes. Special attention is paid to Liebig’s agro-chemistry, which considerably influenced Marx’s view on modern agriculture.
Acknowledgements
The first version of this article was prepared for and presented at the international conference on Marx held in Lyon from the 27th to the 29th September 2017. The author is grateful to the participants of the session on “Ground rent — Falling rate of profit” for their helpful questions and comments. In preparing for the publication in this special issue of EJHET of the abridged version of the original paper, the author could greatly benefit from the helpful comments and suggestions given by the two anonymous referees. If some of the errors and insufficiencies contained in the former versions have been eliminated, it is solely thanks to their help. Evidently, the usual disclaimer applies.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 The chronological position of the drafting of “Chapter 3” provoked a heated debate on both national and international levels, involving a considerable number of researchers in Japan, East-Germany, and Soviet Union. It continued for a certain time and finally in the mid-1980s, nearly all the contentions of Omura etc. were internationally acknowledged. Thereafter, no major objections to this common agreement have been raised. We will not enter into the details of this debate here, but adhere to the view, which prevailed as a result of the majority consensus. As for the details of the process of this debate and of the grounds of the view newly agreed, see “Chapter 3, Making of the chapter three ‘capital and profit’ ” and “Chapter 4, Formation of the conception of Book III in the manuscript of 1861–1863” in Omura Citation1998, as well as Müller and Focke Citation1984, Ohmura [Omura] 1984.
2 “Mr. Malthus appears to think that it is a part of my doctrine that the cost and value of a thing should be the same; —it is, if he means by cost, ‘cost of production’ including profits” (Ricardo, I/47). This passage of Ricardo seems to express conclusively the character of his theory of value in a few very concise and clear words.
3 The differential rent is called “differential rent”, because it is based on the difference in the productive forces of each of the cultivated lands, determined by their fertility and location. It is not difficult to understand the provenance of this appellation. In contrast, why the absolute rent is called “absolute rent” may require an explanation, but Marx does not give anything like this when beginning to use it. However, the following sentence may give a clue: “if the value of the agricultural produce is higher than its cost-price [price of production], it can pay rent quite irrespectively of differences in land, the poorest land and the poorest mine can pay the same absolute rent as the richest.” (CitationII/3.3, 957) We can see from these sentences that the absolute rent is named as such because, in contrast to the differential rent, it arises evenly (absolutely) on the basis of the differences in the conditions of production between agriculture and industry, irrespective of the differences within the agricultural sector.
4 A clear definition of them is given afterwards in a place far from Rodbertus as follows: “Absolute rent is the excess of value over the average price of raw produce. Differential rent is the excess of the market-price of the produce grown on favoured soils over the value of their own produce” (CitationII/3.3, 795. emphasis by Marx).
5 On the contrary, during the period of tackling the theory of rent in the manuscript of 1861–1863 (the notebooks X–XII), Marx did not search for related materials at all while writing the manuscript, probably because then he got unexpectedly involved in the theory of rent. Except for the book of Rodbertus, the literature he referred to then belonged all to the materials he had already read and known before this time. Also in this sense, the writing of manuscript during the latter half of 1865, backed up with the excerpt notes made in parallel, was without precedent in Marx’s study on rent.
6 If such an additional investment is already foreseen at the moment of the conclusion of the lease contract, it is substantially not an addition but simply an augmentation of the amount of capital fixed in the contract, hence the rent paid on the basis of such a contract is included in the category of differential rent I. Therefore, differential rent II should necessarily be considered as arising as a result of additional capital investment made ex-post during the period of the contract.