Progress and Poverty, Volumes I and II / An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth

The work investigates why industrial progress and increased productive power often coexist with persistent or worsening poverty, rejecting common explanations such as the Malthusian claim that population inevitably outstrips subsistence. It reconstructs the laws of distribution—rent, wages, and interest—showing rent as the central force that, through rising land values under private ownership, absorbs gains from progress and limits the advance of wages and returns to capital. The analysis traces how population growth and technical improvement magnify land rents and wealth concentration and advocates capturing unimproved land value through public appropriation or taxation as a remedy.