Rent beat profit for a century after capitalism’s named birth.

Evidence

In the 1770s, and for at least another century, wherever one looked one saw feudalism. Feudal lords dominated rural areas, owned the freehold titles of most city blocks, commanded armies and navies, and presided over parliamentary committees and government bodies. Even in the 1840s, as Marx and Engels were writing their manifesto in response to the worldwide effects of the capitalist class, most production was still taking place under the auspices of the old feudalist class, the landed gentry. Land ownership remained the main source of political authority and rent continued to be more powerful than profit, especially in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars when landlords regained the upper hand over capitalists by banning grain imports with their Corn Laws. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 455

Categorization

• XREF: Historical-echo of her own ADDENDUM article on sumptuary law and class signaling — land/rent as the older dominance structure. — connects to: Rent has replaced profit as the driving force of the economy. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 504; Rent survived capitalism’s golden age embedded within its genome. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 469
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 455

Broader Connections

• Rent survived capitalism’s golden age embedded within its genome. #corroborates (0.90) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 469