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Marx-Engels Correspondence 1869
Engels to Marx
In LondonAbstract
I never thought that Mr. Carey would be such amusing reading.... The fellow imagines that the reason why rent is so high in South Lancashire and, among other places, in the Forest of Rossendale (a thickly-populated industrial centre) is because the land here is exceptionally good corn-producing land! I am making a heap of marginal notes for you and as soon as I have read his theory of rent will write you my opinion and send the book back. Of course he explains the origin of rent by just as wild and senseless a story as Ricardo, and his idea too of how it took place is as absurd as the way in which all economists represent this sort of thing to themselves. But that has nothing to do with the theory of rent itself. What Carey calls the "best land" you can see from the fact that, according to his own statement, it is exceptional now for the so-called best land, even in the Northern States, to yield a profit when taken into cultivation.