TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 733 



counties there has been an increase. The relation of London to the larger towns, 

 of these to the rest of the country in respect of expenditure on poor relief. 

 11. Conclusions on the issues raised. 



2. Proj)Osalsfor an Agreement on the Terms ^ Rent' and ^Interest.' 



By C. S. Devas. 



Need of agreement in terminology to prevent fruitless discussion. — Changes and' 

 uncertainty from the time of Adam Smith on the classitieation of incomes briefly 

 illustrated. — One reason for this is the abstraction that separates land from 

 capital. — Economic authorities for making only two requi-sities of production, 

 persons and things, or labour and capital. — Professor Bohm Bawerk'syiye reasons 

 for separating land from capital answered : First, that land is immovable, capital 

 mostly movable. Secondly, that land is the gift of Nature, capital the result of 

 labour (Bohm Bawerk's definition of capital amended. — Dr. Sidgwick's wide view 

 of capital does not affect the present issue). — Thirdly, that land cannot be increased, 

 while capital can (universal application of the law of diminishing returns).— 

 Fourthly, that the social and economic position of the landowner is quite different 

 from that of the capitalist. — Fifthly, that under certain circumstances land-rent 

 rises while interest falls. Conclusion, that the separation of land from capital is 

 logically indefensible, historically misleading, and practically inconvenient. — 

 Classification of incomes into rewards of labour, returns from capital, and a combi- 

 nation of the two. — Objection on there being no place for the doctrine of rent. — 

 Professor Marshall on that doctrine. — Character of difi'erential gains above those 

 of the inarginal pair in a market. — The so-called rent of land one out of many 

 such differential gains. — Need of one term for all such gains, and of another term 

 for all receipts from property. — Advantage of using the term rent for all such 

 receipts, and rentier for their receiver. — DifEculty from the frequent use of economic 

 rent for diiferential gains and of interest for receipts from property. — Need of 

 coming to an agreement. — The strange misunderstanding, for example, that the 

 economic doctrine of the Fathers, Canonists, and Theologians is socialistic could 

 never have arisen had our terms been clear. 



3. On the Economic Results of the Black Death in Italy. 

 By Maxime Kovalevsky. 



The pestilence of 1348-49 produced all over Europe the economical results it had' 

 in England. The depopulation of Europe brought forward the labour question. 

 For the first time it had to be treated, on a large scale, as a question of almost in- 

 ternational importance. Without any previous agreement the Governments of 

 France, Aragon and Castella, as well as the political authorities of independent or 

 semi-dependent cities of Italy and the GermanEmpire, issued ordinances prohibiting 

 idleness, enforcing the obligation of farmers to pay rents, and regulating the wages 

 of labourers and working men. The fall of serfdom, which was almost accomplished 

 in Italy at the end of the thirteenth century (Piedmont and Frioul excepted), 

 ireated here centuries before they are found in France or Germany a large class of 

 free farmers (Mezzeria di Toscana, i terziafori di Lombardia, &c.) and free working 

 men. A regulation of wages appears already in the thirteenth century. Pisa, 

 Mantua, Nice, some Sicilian municipalities, tried to establish a legal standard of 

 wages. Their example was followed at the end of the pestilence by almost every 

 city of Middle Italy. Florence, Sienna, Orvieto, Todi, &c., issued orders and 

 statutes against the enhancement of wages, either according to the labourers and' 

 artisans the right to a supplementary pay, not surpassing the third of the wages 

 they got before the pestilence, or totally refusing any increase of remuneration. 

 Venice alone tried to achieve the same end — the lowering of wages — by the way 

 of liberty. Its example was followed by dependent municipalities, such as Trevisa 

 or Kagusa. All encouraged emigration, according great facilities to new settlers,. 



