I think your question is about 50 to 100 years later than Smith. He, so far as I know, did not distinguish between capitalism and free markets. His work was nearly ahead of its time as written anyway.<p>The &quot;time limited&quot; thing sounds more like 19th Century Progressive thinking informed of Ricardo. It sounds basically like George to my ear.  And dependent on how all the math works, I can see no reason it would not be an improvement on perpetual ownership.