Progress and Poverty, Volumes I and II / An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth - Henry George

Though Truth and Right seem often overborne, we may not see it all. How can we see it all? All that is passing, even here, we cannot tell. The vibrations of matter which give the sensations of light and color become to us indistinguishable when they pass a certain point. It is only within a like range that we have cognizance of sounds. Even animals have senses which we have not. And, here? Compared with the solar system our earth is but an indistinguishable speck; and the solar system itself shrivels into nothingness when gauged with the star depths. Shall we say that what passes from our sight passes into oblivion? No; not into oblivion. Far, far beyond our ken the eternal laws must hold their sway.

The hope that rises is the heart of all religions! The poets have sung it, the seers have told it, and in its deepest pulses the heart of man throbs responsive to its truth. This, that Plutarch said, is what in all times and in all tongues has been said by the pure hearted and strong sighted, who, standing as it were, on the mountain tops of thought and looking over the shadowy ocean, have beheld the loom of land:

“Men’s souls, encompassed here with bodies and passions, have no communication with God, except what they can reach to in conception only, by means of philosophy, as by a kind of an obscure dream. But when they are loosed from the body, and removed into the unseen, invisible, impassable, and pure region, this God is then their leader and king; they there, as it were, hanging on him wholly, and beholding without weariness and passionately affecting that beauty which cannot be expressed or uttered by men.”

INDEX.

Bagehot, Walter, arrest of civilization, [480]-481;
why barbarians waste away, [497]-498.
Bastiat, cause of interest, [176]-186.
Bisset, Andrew, knight’s service, [381]n.
Buckle, assumes current doctrine of wages, [18];
on Malthus, [92]-93, [100];
interest and profits, [158];
relation between rent, wages and interest, [170].
Cairnes, J. E., high wages and interest in new countries, [20]-22.
California, economic principles exemplified in, [19]-20, [61]-63, [78], [144]-146, [174], [255]-256, [271]-275, [290]-291, [344], [383]-385, [392], [398], [434]-435.
Capital, current doctrine of its relation to wages, [17]-18;
idle in industrial depressions, [21];
theory that wages are drawn from, [20]-23;
deductions from this theory, [24]-25;
varying definitions of, [32]-34;
difficulties besetting use of term, [36]-37;
exclusions of term, [37]-38;
distinguished from wealth, [41]-47, [71]-72;
used in two senses, [56]-57;
definitions of Smith, Ricardo, McCulloch, and Mill compared, [41]-45;
wages not drawn from, [23]-29, [49]-69;
does not limit industry, [26]-29, [57]-58, [80]-86;
does not maintain laborers, [70]-78;
modes in which it aids labor, [79], [186]-188, [195]-196;
real functions of, [79]-87;
may limit form and productiveness of industry, [80]-82;
apparent want of generally due to some other want, [82]-85;
limited by requirements of production, [85]-86;
poverty not due to scarcity of, [85]-86;
not necessary to production, [163]-164;
a form of labor, [164], [198], [203];
its essence, [179];
spurious, [189]-194;
not fixed in quantity, [195];
if the only active factor in production, [201]-202;
its profits as affected by wages, [308]-309;
wastes when not used, [311];
invested upon possessory titles, [385].
Carey, Henry C., on capital, [34];
rent, [225].
China, cause of poverty and famine, [121]-122;
civilization, [480]-481.
Civilization, what, [475]-476;
prevailing belief as to progress of, [476]-479;
arrest of, [479]-486;
differences in, [487]-502;
its law, [503]-523;
retrogression, [482]-486, [536]-537;
to endure must be based on justice, [543]-546;
character of European, [518], [526].
Civilization, modern, its riddle, [10];
has not improved condition of the lowest class, [281]-284;
development of, [372]-382;
superiority, [519]-520;
may decline, [524]-528;
indications of retrogression, [537]-540;
its possibilities, [452]-469, [549].
Communities, industrial, extent of, [197].
Confucius, descendants of, [111]-112.
Consumption, supported by contemporaneous production, [72]-75;
demand for determines production, [75]-76;
only relative term, [133];
increase of shows increasing production, [149].
Co-operation, not a remedy for poverty, [314]-317;
but will follow from the extirpation of poverty, [452]-469.
Debts, public, not capital, [189]-190;
origin and abolition, [381]-382, [453].
Demand, not fixed, [243], [245]-247. (See Supply and Demand.)
Deutsch, Emanuel, human nature, [495].
Development, concentration the order of, [325].
Development Philosophy, relations to Malthusianism, [100]-101;
insufficiency of, [473]-486.
Discount, high rates of, not interest, [21]n.
Distribution, terms of exclusive, [37], [38], [162];
laws of, [153]-222;
their necessary relation, [160]-164;
as currently taught, [160]-161;
contrasted with true laws, [218];
equality of, [450]-451.
Education no remedy for poverty, [305]-306.
Exchange, functions of, [27]-29, [76]-77;
a part of production, [47];
brings increase, [182]-183, [186]-187;
extends with progress of civilization, [197];
promotes civilization, [508]-509.
Exchanges, credit in, [276]-277;
effect of wages on international, [309]-310.
Fawcett, Prof., Indian expenditures, [120]n;
value of land in England, [287].
Fawcett, Mrs., laborers maintained by capital, [70];
land tax, [421].
Feudal system, recognition of common rights to land, [372]-375, [381];
infeudation, [396]-397.
Fortunes, great, [193]-194, [386]-387, [451].
Franklin, Benjamin, his economy, [303].
Government, improvements in increase production, [227], [252];
will not relieve poverty, [298]-301;
simplification and change of character, [452]-469;
tendency to republicanism, [526]-527;
transition to despotism, [301], [527]-528.
Guizot, Europe after fall of Roman Empire, [372]-373;
the question that arises from a review of civilization, [553].
Hyndman, H. M., Indian famine, [119]-120.
Improvements in the arts, effect upon distribution, [242]-252;
in habits of industry and thrift, will not relieve poverty, [301]-308;
upon land, their value separable from land values, [341]-342, [422]-423.
India, cause of poverty and famine, [114]-121;
civilization, [480], [481], [497].
Industrial depressions, extent and significance, [5]-6, [537]-538;
conflicting opinions as to cause, [10]-11;
their cause and course, [261]-279;
connection with railroad building, [272]-274;
passing away, [279].
Industry, not limited by capital, [26], [56]-57;
may be limited in form and productiveness by capital, [80]-86.
Interest, confusion of term with profits, [156]-163;
proper signification, [161]-162;
variations in, [174];
cause of, [174]-188;
justice of, [187];
profits mistaken for, [189]-194;
law of, [195]-203;
normal point of, [198]-199;
formulation of law, [202].
Interest and wages, evident connection, [19]-21;
relation, [171]-172, [199]-203, [218];
why higher in new countries, [221].
Inventions, labor-saving, failure to relieve poverty, [3]-5;
advantage of goes primarily to labor, [179], [195]-196;
except when not diffused, [251];
effect of, [242]-252;
brought forth by freedom, [521]-523.
Ireland, cause of poverty and famine, [123]-128;
effect of introduction of potato, [303]-304.
Labor, purpose of, [27]-29, [244]-245, [396];
meaning of term, [37]-38;
produces wages, [27]-29, [49]-69;
precedes wages, [55]-58;
employs capital, [163], [195];
eliminated from production, [201]-202;
productiveness varies with natural powers, [205];
no fixed barriers between occupations, [210]-211;
value of reduced by value of land, [221]-222;
supply and demand, [268]-269;
land necessary to, [270], [292]-294;
cause of want of employment, [271]-272;
family, [304];
combination, [308]-314;
only rightful basis of property, [332]-335;
efficiency increases with wages, [441]-442;
not in itself repugnant, [465].
Labor and Capital, different forms of same thing, [163]-164, [198], [203];
whence idea of their conflict arises, [189], [194];
harmony of interests, [198]-203.
Laborers, not maintained by capital, [70]-78;
where land is monopolized, have no interest in increase of productive power, [281];
made more dependent by civilization, [281]-284;
organizations of, [308]-314;
condition not improved by division of land, [321]-325;
their enslavement the ultimate result of private property in land, [345]-355.
Land, meaning of term, [37];
value of is not wealth, [39], [165]-166;
diminishing productiveness cited in support Malthusian theory, [97];
how far true, [133]-134, [228]-241;
maintenance of prices, [274]-275;
estimated value of in England, [287];
effects of monopolization in England, [288]-289;
relation of man to, [292]-294;
division of will not relieve poverty, [319]-325;
tendency to concentration in ownership, [319]-321;
necessity for abolishing private ownership, [326]-327;
injustice of private property in, [331]-392;
absurdity of legal titles to, [340], [342]-344;
aristocracy and serfdom spring from ownership of, [294], [348]-355, [514]-515;
purchase by government, [357]-358;
development of private ownership, [366]-382;
commons, [375]-376;
tenures in the United States, [383]-392;
private ownership inconsistent with best use, [395]-400;
how may be made common property, [401]-427;
effects of this, [452]-469;
increase of productiveness from better distribution of population, [449]n.
Land owners, power of, [167], [292]-294, [345]-355;
ease of their combination, [312]-313;
their claims to compensation, [356]-365;
will not be injured by confiscation of rent, [445]-469.
Latimer, Hugh, increase of rent in Sixteenth Century, [288]-289.
Laveleye, M. de, on small land holdings, [324]-325;
primitive land tenures, [369];
Teutonic equality, [372].
Lawyers, confusions in their terminology, [335]-336;
their inculcation of the sacredness of property, [366];
influence on land tenures, [370]n.
Life, quantity of human, [109]-110;
limits to, [129]-134;
reproductive power gives increase to capital, [181];
balance of, [196]-197;
meaning of, [561].
Macaulay, English rule in India, [116];
future of United States, [534].
Machinery. (See Inventions.)
McCulloch, on wages fund, [22]-23n;
definition of capital, [33]-34;
compared, [42]-44;
principle of increase, [101];
Irish poverty and distress, [125]-126;
rent, [232];
tax on rent, [420], [422]-425.
Malthus, purpose of Essay on Population, [98];
its absurdities, [104]-105, [137];
his other works treated with contempt, [105]-106n;
fall of wages in Sixteenth Century, [288];
cause of his popularity, [98]-100, [336]-337n.
Malthusian Theory, stated, examined and disproved, [91]-150;
as stated by Malthus, [93]-94;
as stated by Mill, [94]-95, [140]-141;
in its strongest form, [95];
its triumph and the causes, [95]-96;
harmonizes with ideas of working classes, [98];
defends inequality and discourages reform, [98]-99, [140]-141, [336]-337n;
its extension in development philosophy, [101];
now generally accepted, [101]-102;
its illegitimate inferences, [103]-139;
facts which disprove it, [140]-150;
its support from doctrine of rent, [97], [132]-133, [228]-229;
effects predicated of increase of population result from improvements in the arts, [242]-252;
the ultimate defense of property in land, [336]-337n.
Man more than an animal, [129]-131, [134]-136, [307], [464], [473]-475, [492]-493;
his power to avail himself of the reproductive forces of nature, [131]-132;
primary right and power, [332]-333;
desire for approbation, [456]-458;
selfishness not the master motive, [460]-461;
his infinite desires, [134]-136, [243], [245]-247, [464]-465, [503];
how improves, [475];
idea of national or race life, [485]-486;
cause of differences and progress, [487]-502;
hereditary transmission, [492]-502;
social in his nature, [506].
Mill, John Stuart, definition of capital, [34], [71]-72;
industry limited by capital, [56]-57n, [70]-71;
Malthusian doctrine, [94]-95, [111];
effect of unrestricted increase of population, [140]-141;
confusion as to profits and interest, [158];
law of rent, [168];
wages, [213];
government resumption of increase of land values, [358]-360;
influence of Malthusianism, [360]-361;
tax on rent, [420]-421.
Money, when capital, [45];
in hands of consumer, [46]n;
confounded with wealth, [60]-61;
lack of commodities spoken of as lack of, [266].
Monopolies, profits of, [191]-194;
cause of certain, [408]-409.
More, Sir Thomas, ejectments of cottagers, [289].
Nature, its reproductive power, [180]-182;
utilization of its variations, [182]-183, [185]-187;
equation between reproduction and destruction, [196]-197;
impartiality of, [333]-334.
Nicholson, N. A., on capital, [35].
Nightingale, Florence, causes of famine in India, [118]-119, [119]n, [120]n.
Perry, Arthur Latham, on capital, [34];
rent, [225].
Political Economy, its failure, its nature and its methods, [10]-13;
doctrines based upon the theory that wages are drawn from capital, [24]-25;
importance of definitions, [30]-36;
its terms, abstract terms, [47];
confusion of standard treatises, [56]-57, [158]-161, [218];
the erroneous standpoint which its investigators have adopted, [162]-163;
its fundamental principle, [12], [204], [217], [560];
writers on, stumbling over law of wages, [215]-216;
compared with astronomy, [219]-220;
deals with general tendencies, [278]-279;
admissions in standard works as to property in land, [356]-358;
principles not pushed to logical conclusions, [421];
the Physiocrats, [421]-422;
unison with moral truth, [230], [484];
its hopefulness, [557];
effect on religious ideas, [555]-556.
Population and Subsistence, [91]-150. (See Malthusian Theory.)
Population, inferences as to increase, [103]-104;
of world, no evidence of increase in, [107]-110;
present, [113]n;
increase of descendants not increase of, [112];
only limited by space, [133]-134;
real law of increase, [137]-139;
effect of increase upon production and distribution, [228]-241;
increase of increases wealth, [140]-150;
puts land to intenser uses, [320];
increase in United States, [390].
Poverty, its connection with material progress, [6]-10;
failure to explain this, [10]-11;
where deepest, [222];
why it accompanies progress, [280]-294;
remedy for, [326]-328;
springs from injustice, [338]-339, [541]-542;
its effects, [354], [456]-464.
Price, not measured by the necessity of the buyer, [185];
equation of equalizes reward of labor, [204].
Production, same principles obvious in complex as in simple forms, [26]-29;
factors of, [37], [162], [203], [270], [292]-294;
includes exchange, [47];
the immediate result of labor, [64]-67;
directed by demand for consumption, [75];
functions of capital in, [79]-87, [162]-164;
simple modes of sometimes most efficient, [84]-85;
only relative term, [133];
increased shown by increased consumption, [149];
meaning of the term, [155];
utilizes reproductive forces, [179]-182;
time an element in, [180]-185;
the modes of, [186];
recourse to lower points does not involve diminution of, [229]-232;
tendency to large scale, [320]-321, [325], [531]-532;
susceptible of enormous increase, [431]-434, [466], [547].
Profits, meaning of the term and confusions in its use, [158]-162, [189]-194.
Progress, human, current theory of considered, [473]-486;
in what it consists, [487]-502;
its law, [503]-523, [541]-549;
retrogression, [524]-540.
Progress, material, connection with poverty, [7]-11, [222];
in what it consists, [227];
effects upon distribution of wealth, [228]-241;
effect of expectation raised by, [253]-258;
how it results in industrial depressions, [261]-279;
why it produces poverty, [280]-294.
Property, basis of, [331]-334, [340]-342;
erroneous categories of, [335];
derivation of distinction between real and personal, [377];
private in land not necessary to use of land, [395]-400;
idea of transferred to land, [514]-515.
Protection, its fallacies have their root in belief as to wages, [19];
effect on agriculturists, [447]-449;
abolition by England, effect of, [252];
how protective taxes fall, [447]-448.
Quesnay, his doctrine, [422]-423, [431].
Rent, bearing upon Malthusian theory, [96]-98, [132]-134, [228]-241, [242]-252;
meaning of the term, [165];
arises from monopoly, [166];
law of, [168]-170;
its corollaries, [171], [217]-218;
effect of their recognition, [171]-172;
as related to interest, [201]-203;
as related to wages, [204]-216;
advance of explains why wages and interest do not advance, [221]-222;
increased by increase of population, [228]-241;
increased by improvements, [242]-252;
by speculation, [253]-258;
speculative advance in the cause of industrial depressions, [261]-279;
advance in explains the persistence of poverty, [280]-294;
increase of not prevented by tenant right, [322];
or by division of land, [324]-325;
serf, generally fixed, [353];
confiscation of future increase, [357]-359;
a continuous robbery, [362]-363;
feudal rents, [372]-375;
their abolition, [378]-381;
their present value, [381]-382;
rent now taken by the State, [397]-400;
State appropriation of, [401]-427, [514]-515;
taxes on, [406]-419;
effects of thus appropriating, [431]-486.
Reade, Winwood, Martyrdom of Man, [478]n, [479]n.
Religion, necessary to socialism, [318];
promotive of civilization, [509], [519]-520;
Hebrew, effects on race, [495]-496;
retrogression in, [536]-537;
change going on, [540];
animosities created by, [507]n;
consensus of, [560]-561.
Ricardo, definition of capital, [33];
inference as to population, [71];
enunciation of law of rent, [168];
narrow view of, [168]-169, [225];
tax on rent, [420].
Royce, Samuel, Deterioration and Race Education, [538]n.
Slaveholders of the South, their view of abolition, [351]-353.
Slavery, chattel, comparatively trivial effects of, [347];
modifying influences, [353]-354;
not truly abolished in United States, [355], [392];
never aided progress, [522]-523.
Smith, Adam, definition of capital, [32]-33, [36]-42, [44], [45]-46;
recognizes truth as to source of wages and then abandons it, [50];
influence of Malthusian theory upon, [92];
profits, [157];
how economists have followed him, [159];
differences of wages in different occupations, [207]-208, [209]-210;
his failure to appreciate the laws of distribution, [215];
taxation, [416]-419.
Socialism, its ends and means, [317]-319;
practical realization of its ideal, [431]-469.
Social organization and life, possible changes, [452]-69.
Spencer, Herbert, compensation of land owners, [357]-358, [362];
public ownership of land, [402];
evolution, [478], [485];
human progress, [478]-479;
social differences, [502].
Strikes, [310]-314.
Subsistence, population and, [91]-150;
increases with population, [129]-133;
cannot be exhausted, [133]-134;
included in wealth, [142], [244];
demand for not fixed, [245]-246. (See Malthusian Theory.)
Supply and demand, of labor, [208]-209;
relative terms, [266]-267;
as affected by wages, [308]-310.
Swift, Dean, his Modest Proposal, [126].
Taxation, eliminated in considering distribution, [155];
reduction of will not relieve poverty, [297]-301;
considered, [406]-427;
canons of, [406];
effect upon production, [406]-412;
ease and cheapness in collection, [412]-414;
certainty, [414]-416;
equality of, [416]-419;
opinions on, [420]-423;
objections to tax on rent, [422]-427;
cause of manifold taxation, [425]-427;
how taxation falls on agriculturists, [447]-450;
effects of confiscating rent by taxation, [431]-469.
Tennant, Rev. Wm., cause of famine in India, [115]-116.
Thornton, Wm., on wage fund, [18]n;
on capital, [35].
Values, equation of, [196]-197.
Wages, current doctrine, [17];
it coincides with vulgar opinion, [18];
but is inconsistent with facts, [19]-22;
genesis of current theory, [22];
difference between it and that herein advanced, [23]-25;
not drawn from capital but produced by labor, [23], [25]-29, [49]-69;
meaning of the term, [31]-32;
always subsequent to labor, [56]-58;
fallacy of the assumption that they are drawn from capital, [56]-57;
for services, [59]n;
connection between current doctrine and Malthusian theory, [92]-95, [96]-97;
confusion of terms produced by current theory, [159];
rate of, [204];
law of, [204]-216;
formulated, [213];
in different occupations, [207]-212;
as quantity and as proportion, [216];
not increased by material progress, [303]-304;
minimum fixed by standard of comfort, [303];
effect of increase or decrease on employers, [308]-309;
equilibrium of, [310]-311;
not increased by division of land, [323]-325;
why they tend to wages of slavery, [346];
efficiency of labor increases with, [442].
Wages and Interest, high or low together, [19]-22;
current explanation, [19];
Cairne’s explanation, [20]-22;
true explanation, [170]-172, [199]-203, [221];
formulated, [218].
Wages of Superintendence, [159];
used to include profits of monopoly, [191].
Walker, Amasa, capital, [35].
Walker, Prof. F. A., wages, [18]n;
capital, [35].
Wayland, Professor, definition of capital, [34].
Wealth, increase of not generally shared, [8]-9;
meaning of term, [38]-40;
interchangeability of, [47]-48, [142], [181]-182, [244]-247;
confounded with money, [60]-61;
increases with population, [141]-150;
accumulated, [147]-149;
laws of distribution, [153]-216;
formulated, [218];
nature of, [147]-149, [180], [205];
political effects of unequal distribution, [300], [527]-535;
effects of just distribution, [438]-444, [450]-451, [452]-469.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] It is true that the poorest may now in certain ways enjoy what the richest a century ago could not have commanded, but this does not show improvement of condition so long as the ability to obtain the necessaries of life is not increased. The beggar in a great city may enjoy many things from which the backwoods farmer is debarred, but that does not prove the condition of the city beggar better than that of the independent farmer.

[2] This seems to me true of Mr. Thornton’s objections, for while he denies the existence of a predetermined wage fund, consisting of a portion of capital set apart for the purchase of labor, he yet holds (which is the essential thing) that wages are drawn from capital, and that increase or decrease of capital is increase or decrease of the fund available for the payment of wages. The most vital attack upon the wage fund doctrine of which I know is that of Professor Francis A. Walker (The Wages Question: New York, 1876), yet he admits that wages are in large part advanced from capital—which, so far as it goes, is all that the stanchest supporter of the wage fund theory could claim—while he fully accepts the Malthusian theory. Thus his practical conclusions in nowise differ from those reached by expounders of the current theory.