Henry George, Emile de Laveleye, and the Issue of Peasant Proprietorship

• Published in: The American journal of economics and sociology 2008-01, Vol.67 (1), p.47-60
• Main Author: Heavey, Jerome F.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agricultural land; Economic rent; George's Ideas in Debate; George, Henry; Land; Land economics; Land ownership; Land rent; Land rights; Land use; Land value taxes; Laveleye, Emile de; Nineteenth Century; Ownership; Peasant class; Peasantry; Peasants; Political history; Political theory; Poverty; Private land; Property; Proprietors; Proprietorships; Rents; Studies; Tenants; U.S.A; Victor de Laveleye, Emile Louis
• ISSN: 0002-9246; 1536-7150
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1536-7150.2007.00556.x

In Emile de Laveleye's demonstration that communal land-holding was universally a characteristic of primitive societies, Henry George saw evidence of a golden age before the development of private ownership of land. Though he agreed with George that unequal access to land was a major cause of the social evil of poverty, de Laveleye did not consider it the sole cause of poverty. Where George would nationalize land rent, de Laveleye would make private ownership more widespread; and he faulted George for giving too little attention to the question of how government would use the revenue from a land tax, and for failing to consider the concentration of capital as a cause of poverty.