The important study of economics cannot be prosecuted correctly without an understanding of economic terms. Most persons who attempt to discuss economic questions fail of reaching correct conclusions because they do not understand the true meaning of the terms which they and others use.
Teachers of political economy who understand the science thoroughly recognize the following words as meaning what is here given as their true signification:
Political economy is the science of the production and distribution of wealth.
The term wealth includes all desired and appropriated labor products.
Labor is simply human exertion, whether of the muscles or the brain of man. Hence, all persons who apply their efforts to the production of such things as are needed to enable themselves to sustain life, or others to exist and enjoy life, are laborers.
Capital is simply wealth used in the production of more wealth.
Land means material things other than man and wealth.
Wages are either wealth or services received in return for labor.
Interest is wealth received in return for the use of capital. Rent is the wealth or services received in return for the use of land.
Rent line means the line that bounds land that can yield rent. Land so poor as to be in no demand does not yield rent, and therefore is not a proper object of taxation.
Utility is the quality of satisfying desire. It is an absolute and not a relative quality. It is inherent in the thing possessing it.
Value is a relative term expressing the difference between one thing and some other or all other things. In other words, it is utility in exchange.
Price is exchangeable value represented by dollars and cents.
Barter is the exchange of things without the use of money.
Monopoly is exclusive power. It implies a special privilege held by some person or persons over what others possess. Monopoly in its various forms is the giant curse of the age. The greatest and most oppressive monopoly is the monopoly of natural resources, commonly called land monopoly. It is the parent, the foundation, the bulwark and feeder of all other monopolies. Were land monopoly entirely abolished, all other monopolies would either go to pieces or become comparatively harmless. Land monopoly has been fittingly termed the robber that taken all that is left. This is because when society is temporarily benefited by the abolition of some minor monopolies, land monopoly steps in and absorbs the benefits, thus leaving the people no better off than before. Land monopoly flourishes most and is productive of the greatest evils in large cities, where ground is valued at thousands and even millions of dollars per acre.
Farmers and all other classes of producers should unite their efforts in abolishing land monopoly, and thereby lift a heavy load from the shoulders of labor.
This appeared in the Sacramento Bee, 1899-04-01