Progress and Poverty

“Georgism” was an economic movement named after political economist Henry George in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. This loose movement was based on key ideas presented in the extremely popular Progress and Poverty, especially the use of a single tax on privately- owned land to benefit all members of society. The author also disseminated his ideas through speaking tours in the U.S., Europe, and Australia.

In his writings, Henry George attempted to solve the key socioeconomic problems of his time. These problems were the decline of wages, uneven wealth distribution, and, therefore, the worsening poverty of the working class. Such problems were of increasing concern despite the technological advancements of the Industrial Revolution and the growth of wealth, especially in cities. Yet unlike more radical thinkers like Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, he did not go as far as to propose a social revolution to end the exploitation of the working class. Instead, George determined that private land ownership, growing land rents, and land-value speculation were to blame for poverty in industrialized societies. As a result, he proposed a single land tax that would effectively abolish private land ownership, boost industrial production by no longer constraining capital, increase workers’ wages, limit government bureaucracy and tax-related corruption, and free up immense wealth for public spending.

George’s ideas had a significant effect intellectually and, at times, inspired limited reform in different parts of the world. For example, in Ireland, land was at the center of political struggle. In Progress and Poverty, George wrote about Ireland’s land, famines, and emigration, blaming the “merciless banditti of tax-gatherers” (124) and “a horde of landlords” for “the pauperism and starvation of Ireland” (127). In 1881, he published The Irish Land Question: What It Involves And How Alone It Can Be Settled, suggesting that the land problem was not specific to that country. George’s ideas inspired leaders such as Michael Davitt of the Irish Land League. Davitt, who knew George personally, developed a more radical concept of land nationalization and moved away from more moderate tenant ownership based on George’s theories.

Henry George’s influence was also evident in Russia. Russia had its own thriving political movements based on the ideas of several thinkers such as Karl Marx and Mikhail Bakunin. George was aware of these movements in this book and mentioned them as follows: “All that is necessary to social regeneration is included in the motto of those Russian patriots sometimes called Nihilists—‘Land and Liberty!’” (319). Yet it was the renowned author Leo Tolstoy that was most affected by Henry George’s writing. Tolstoy, too, was concerned with the socioeconomic inequalities in Russia, which was still a predominantly agrarian society at that time. For this reason, George’s ideas about land reform appealed to Tolstoy. Some of Tolstoy’s writings from his late period reflect the influence of George’s ideas. In turn, Tolstoy’s own ideas impacted Georgists for generations, as Henry George’s son traveled to Russia to meet Tolstoy in 1909.

Overall, George’s ideas influenced many writers, politicians, and activists who considered themselves progressive, left-leaning, or socialist in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. However, the measurable political impact was limited. George inspired single-tax leagues in different countries. Some countries, like Britain, attempted to pass land taxes. The Russian Revolution of 1917 privatized all private property, including land, until the 1991 Soviet dissolution. However, the revolution was explicitly based on the more radical ideas of Karl Marx. Nonetheless, the periodic nationalization of resource-rich land in different countries is an indication that George’s theories have found a degree of practical application.