I 



CHAPTER II 



AGRICULTURAL CAPITAL AND PROFITS 



Capital in modern industrial societies 

 assumes so many forms and has so many 

 functions that it is almost impossible to 

 frame a definition which will cover all 

 cases, or even to indicate in short compass 

 the results of scientific analysis. If, how- 

 ever, we confine our attention to agricul- 

 tural capital, and adopt the historical 

 method, most of these difficulties disappear. 

 Under the most primitive conditions, 

 capital appears as a necessary agent of 

 agricultural production, just as much as 

 labour and the land itself. The progress 



in agricultural production may be traced 



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