Land rent: a necessary theoretical concretion

The agro-exporting sector’s capacity to transfer value to the industrial sector, especially during the initial expansive phase, has normally been attributed to its power to generate differential rent. However, at the abstraction level at which it is treated, the problem has not been resolved. This paper attempts to develop a theory of land rent at a specific concreteness level which will permit its adequate use. After refining the concept of differential rent, the suppositions of the non-existence of pre-capitalist forms and national frontiers are abandoned. With this, new categories are discovered: general differential rent, national differential rent, and absolute national monopoly rent.

KEYWORDS:
Agriculture; differential rent; monopoly