Abstract

The agro-exporting sector’s capacity to transfer value to the industrial sector, especially
during the initial expansive phase, has normally been attributed to its power to generate
differential rent. However, at the abstraction level at which it is treated, the problem
has not been resolved. This paper attempts to develop a theory of land rent at a specific concreteness
level which will permit its adequate use. After refining the concept of differential
rent, the suppositions of the non-existence of pre-capitalist forms and national frontiers are
abandoned. With this, new categories are discovered: general differential rent, national differential
rent, and absolute national monopoly rent.

JEL Classification: Q14; Q10.