Part VI, Chapter XXXIX. Capital: A Critique of Political
Economy, Vol. III. The Process of Capitalist Production as a
Whole IN the analysis of ground-rent we shall start from the
assumption, that products paying such a rent, that is, products
a portion of whose surplus-value and general price resolves
itself into ground-rent, are sold at their prices of production,
like all other commodities. It suffices for our purposes to
confine ourselves to products of agriculture and mining. In
other words, their selling prices are made up of the elements of
their cost (the value of the consumed constant and variable
capital) plus a profit, which is determined by the average rate
of profit and calculated on the total capital advanced, whether
consumed or not consumed. We assume, then, that the average
selling prices of these products are equal to their prices of
production. The question is now, how can a ground-rent develop
under these conditions, how can a portion of the profit become
converted into ground-rent, so that