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

by Henry George

The great importance of this inquiry will be obvious. If it has been carefully and logically pursued, its conclusions completely change the character of political economy, give it the coherence and certitude of a true science, and bring it into full sympathy with the aspirations of the masses of men, from which it has long been estranged. What I have done in this book, if I have correctly solved the great problem I have sought to investigate, is, to unite the truth perceived by the school of Smith and Ricardo to the truth perceived by the schools of Proudhon and Lasalle; to show that laissez faire (in its full true meaning) opens the way to a realization of the noble dreams of socialism; to identify social law with moral law, and to disprove ideas which in the minds of many cloud grand and elevating perceptions.

This work was written between August, 1877, and March, 1879, and the plates finished by September of that year. Since that time new illustrations have been given of the correctness of the views herein advanced, and the march of events—and especially that great movement which has begun in Great Britain in the Irish land agitation—shows still more clearly the pressing nature of the problem I have endeavored to solve. But there has been nothing in the criticisms they have received to induce the change or modification of these views—in fact, I have yet to see an objection not answered in advance in the book itself. And except that some verbal errors have been corrected and a preface added, this edition is the same as previous ones.

Henry George.

New York, November, 1880.

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CONTENTS.

Introductory.
PAGE
The Problem		[3]
[Book I].—Wages and Capital.
Chapter	I.—The current doctrine of wages—its insufficiency	[17]
	II.—The meaning of the terms	[30]
	III.—Wages not drawn from capital, but produced by the labor	[49]
	IV.—The maintenance of laborers not drawn from capital	[70]
	V.—The real functions of capital	[79]
[Book II].—Population and Subsistence.
Chapter	I.—The Malthusian theory, its genesis and support	[91]
	II.—Inferences from facts	[103]
	III.—Inferences from analogy	[129]
	IV.—Disproof of the Malthusian theory	[140]
[Book III].—The Laws of Distribution.
Chapter	I.—The inquiry narrowed to the laws of distribution—necessary relation of these laws	[153]
	II.—Rent and the law of rent	[165]
	III.—Interest and the cause of interest	[173]
	IV.—Of spurious capital and of profits often mistaken for interest	[189]
	V.—The law of interest	[195]
	VI.—Wages and the law of wages	[204]
	VII.—Correlation and co-ordination of these laws	[217]
	VIII.—The statics of the problem thus explained	[219]
[Book IV].—Effect of Material Progress Upon the Distribution of Wealth.
Chapter	I.—The dynamics of the problem yet to seek	[225]
	II.—Effect of increase of population upon the distribution of wealth	[228]
	III.—Effect of improvements in the arts upon the distribution of wealth	[242]
	IV.—Effect of the expectation raised by material progress	[253]
[Book V].—The Problem Solved.
Chapter	I.—The primary cause of recurring paroxysms of industrial depression	[261]
	II.—The persistence of poverty amid advancing wealth	[280]
[Book VI].—The Remedy.
Chapter	I.—Insufficiency of remedies currently advocated	[297]
	II.—The true remedy	[326]
[Book VII].—Justice of the Remedy.
Chapter	I.—Injustice of private property in land	[331]
	II.—Enslavement of laborers the ultimate result of private property in land	[345]
	III.—Claim of land owners to compensation	[356]
	IV.—Property in land historically considered	[366]
	V.—Property in land in the United States	[383]
[Book VIII].—Application of the Remedy.
Chapter	I.—Private property in land inconsistent with the best use of land	[395]
	II.—How equal rights to the land may be asserted and secured	[401]
	III.—The proposition tried by the canons of taxation	[406]
	IV.—Indorsements and objections	[420]
[Book IX].—Effects of the Remedy.
Chapter	I.—Of the effect upon the production of wealth	[431]
	II.—Of the effect upon distribution and thence upon production	[438]
	III.—Of the effect upon individuals and classes	[445]
	IV.—Of the changes that would be wrought in social organization and social life	[452]
[Book X].—The Law of Human Progress.
Chapter	I.—The current theory of human progress—its insufficiency	[473]
	II.—Differences in civilization—to what due	[487]
	III.—The law of human progress	[503]
	IV.—How modern civilization may decline	[524]
	V.—The central truth	[541]
[Conclusion].
The problem of individual life		[553]

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INTRODUCTORY.

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