Quitrents failed in America because land was abundant

Evidence

But in America quitrents did not seem modern or liberal. Instead, they seemed dysfunctional and out of place. The crown and the proprietors wanted their money, of course. Collecting the rents was, however, not easy. There was endless bickering and strife. They probably yielded less in revenue than they cost in disaffection. At the outbreak of the American Revolution, they vanished forever. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 278

Categorization

• XREF: Availability of cheap land made feudal rent-seeking institutions non-viable — a mechanism parallel to Friedman’s larger claim that land abundance, not political ideology, drove legal divergence. — connects to: Suburban sprawl made American overpopulation fears concrete decades after global warnings — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 549; Frontier abundance mentally licensed wasteful land use until suburbia exhausted it — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 963; Disguised unemployment cannot occur where land remains abundant relative to population — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1310 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Disguised unemployment cannot occur where land remains abundant relative to population #corroborates (0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1310