sentences:  When there is no accessible rent-free land, any improvements in the condition of society, be they in the form of civilizational progress or local improvement, are recaptured in the form of higher land values, and the leftover wages after rent is paid will tend towards subsistence, as described by David Ricardo's Law of Rent.Such rents can be described as rack-rent, and this sense of the term is economically meaningful, and distinct from other forms of rent.In Ulster in the 1700s, "... landlords were able to 'auction off' leases to the highest bidders.