Between the "oligarchic constellation" and the "agricultural Kuwait": the rent of the land in Uruguayan economic thought (1960-1984)

Abstract

Ground rent theory was developed by classical political economy to explain the capitalist landed property. Since then, it has been used to analyse several phenomena, among which the study of the countries that export agrarian and mineral commodities stands out. This article tries to contribute to the historical reconstruction of the uses of ground rent as an analytical category, focusing on the Uruguayan economic thought in the period 1960-1984. After an exhaustive bibliographic review, the analysis demonstrated that the rise in the research about ground rent occurred in a context framed by the spread of Marxism and a deep economic crisis associated with a fall in agrarian ground rent flow. Those studies tried to find original explanations about the crisis in Uruguay, although they presented some differences in the use of the category, the writing style, and the political positions.