Henry George, Progress and Poverty (New York: D. Appleton,
1882)
PREFACE TO FOURTH
EDITION. (pp. vii-xi)
THE views herein set forth were in the main briefly stated in a
pamphlet entitled "Our Land and Land Policy," published in San
Francisco in 1871. I then intended, as soon as I could, to present
them more fully, but the opportunity did not for a long time occur.
In the mean while I became even more firmly convinced of their truth,
and saw more completely and clearly their relations; and I also saw
how many false ideas and erroneous habits of thought stood in the way
of their recognition, and how necessary it was to go over the whole
ground.
This I have here tried to do, as thoroughly as space would permit.
It has been necessary for me to clear away before I could build up,
and to write at once for those who have made no previous study of
such subjects, and for those who are familiar with economic
reasoning; and, so great is the scope of the argument that it has
been impossible to treat with the fullness they deserve many of the
questions raised. What I have most endeavored to do is to establish
general principles, trusting to my readers to carry further their
applications where this is needed.
In certain respects this book will be best appreciated by those
who have some knowledge of economic literature — but no previous
reading is necessary to the understanding of the argument or the
passing of judgment upon its conclusions. The facts upon which I have
relied are not facts which can only be verified by a search through
libraries. They are facts of common observation and common knowledge,
which every reader can verify for himself, just as he can decide
whether the reasoning from them is or is not valid.
Beginning with a brief statement of facts which suggest this
inquiry, I proceed to examine the explanation currently given in the
name of political economy of the reason why, in spite of the increase
of productive power, wages tend to the minimum of a bare living. This
examination shows that the current doctrine of wages is founded upon
a misconception; that, in truth, wages are produced by the labor for
which they are paid, and should, other things being equal, increase
with the number of laborers. Here the inquiry meets a doctrine which
is the foundation and center of most important economic theories, and
which has powerfully influenced thought in all directions — the
Malthusian doctrine, that population tends to increase faster
than subsistence. Examination, however, shows that this doctrine has
no real support either in fact or in analogy, and that when brought
to a decisive test it is utterly disproved.
Thus far the results of the inquiry, though extremely important,
are mainly negative. They show that current theories do not
satisfactorily explain the connection of poverty with material
progress, but throw no light upon the problem itself, beyond showing
that its solution must be sought in the laws which govern the
distribution of wealth. It therefore becomes necessary to carry
the inquiry into this field. A preliminary review shows that the
three laws of distribution must necessarily correlate with each
other, which as laid down by the current political economy they fail
to do, and an examination of the terminology in use reveals the
confusion of thought by which this discrepancy has been slurred over.
Proceeding then to work out the laws of distribution, I first take up
the law of rent. This, it is readily seen, is correctly
apprehended by the current political economy. But it is also seen
that the full scope of this law has not been appreciated, and that it
involves as corollaries the laws of wages and interest — the cause
which determines what part of the produce shall go to the land-owner
necessarily determining what part shall be left for labor — and
capital. Without resting here, I proceed to an independent deduction
of the laws of interest and wages. I have stopped to determine
the real cause and justification of interest, and to point out a
source of much misconception — the confounding of what are really the
profits of monopoly with the legitimate earnings of capital. Then
returning to the main inquiry, investigation shows that interest must
rise and fall with wages, and depends ultimately upon the same thing
as rent — the margin of cultivation or point in production where rent
begins. A similar but independent investigation of the law of
wages yields similar harmonious results. Thus the three laws of
distribution are brought into mutual support and harmony, and the
fact that with material progress rent everywhere advances is seen to
explain the fact that wages and interest do not advance.
What causes this advance of rent is the next question that arises,
and it necessitates an examination of the effect of material progress
upon the distribution of wealth. Separating the factors of material
progress into increase of population and improvements in the arts, it
is first seen that increase in population tends constantly, not
merely by reducing the margin of cultivation, but by localizing the
economies and powers which come with increased population, to
increase the proportion of the aggregate produce which is taken in
rent, and to reduce that which goes as wages and interest. Then
eliminating increase of population, it is seen that improvement in
the methods and powers of production tends in the same direction,
and, land being held as private property, would produce in a
stationary population all the effects attributed by the Malthusian
doctrine to pressure of population. And then a consideration of the
effects of the continuous increase in land-values which thus springs
from material progress reveals in the speculative advance inevitably
begotten when land is private property a derivative but most powerful
cause of the increase of rent and the crowding down of wages.
Deduction shows that this cause must necessarily produce periodical
industrial depression, and induction proves the conclusion; while
from the analysis which has thus been made it is seen that the
necessary result of material progress, land being private property,
is, no matter what the increase in population, to force laborers to
wages which give but a bare living.
This identification of the cause that associates poverty with
progress points to the remedy, but it is to so radical a remedy that
I have next deemed it necessary to inquire whether there is any other
remedy. Beginning the investigation again from another starting
point, I have passed in examination the measures and tendencies
currently advocated or trusted in for the improvement of the
condition of the laboring masses. The result of this investigation is
to prove the preceding one, as it shows that nothing short of making
land common property can permanently relieve poverty and check the
tendency of wages to the starvation-point.
The question of justice now naturally arises, and the
inquiry passes into the field of ethics. An investigation of
the nature and basis of property shows that there is a fundamental
and irreconcilable difference between property in things which are
the product of labor and property in land; that the one has a natural
basis and sanction while the other has none, and that the recognition
of exclusive property in land is necessarily a denial of the right of
property in the products of labor. Further investigation shows
that private property in land always has, and always must, as
development proceeds, lead to the enslavement of the laboring class;
thus land-owners can make no just claim to compensation if society
choose to resume its right; that so far from private property in land
being in accordance with the natural perceptions of men, the very
reverse is true, and that in the United States we are already
beginning to feel the effects of having admitted this erroneous and
destructive principle.
The inquiry then passes to the field of practical
statesmanship. It is seen that private property in land, instead
of being necessary to its improvement and use, stands in the way of
improvement and use, and entails an enormous waste of productive
forces; that the recognition of the common right to land involves no
shock or dispossession, but is to be reached by the simple and easy
method of abolishing all taxation save that upon land-values. And
this an inquiry into the principles of taxation shows to be, in all
respects, the best subject of taxation.
A consideration of the effects of the change proposed then shows
that it
- would enormously increase production;
- would secure justice in distribution;
- would benefit all classes; and
- would make possible an advance to a higher and nobler
civilization.
The inquiry now rises to a wider field, and recommences from
another starting-point. For not only do the hopes which have been
raised come into collision with the widespread idea that social
progress is only possible by slow race improvement, but the
conclusions we have arrived at assert certain laws which, if they are
really natural laws, must be manifest in universal history. As a
final test, it therefore becomes necessary to work out the law of
human progress, for certain great facts which force themselves on our
attention as soon as we begin to consider this subject, seem utterly
inconsistent with what is now the current theory. This inquiry shows
- that differences in civilization are not due to differences in
individuals, but rather to differences in social organization;
- that progress, always kindled by association, always passes into
retrogression as inequality is developed; and
- that even now, in modern civilization, the causes which have
destroyed all previous civilizations are beginning to manifest
themselves, and
- that mere political democracy is running its course toward
anarchy and despotism.
- But it also identifies the law of social life with the great
moral law of justice, and, proving previous conclusions, shows how
retrogression may be prevented and a grander advance begun.
This ends the inquiry. The final chapter will explain itself.
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 school 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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