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# Agricultural Cultivation at Proprietor Expense

## Definition

A system where landlords provide all capital and resources for farming while extracting the entire produce through servile labor or metayer arrangements, creating incentives for minimal rather than optimal cultivation since the cultivator bears no investment risk.

## Source Chapter

Book III, Chapter 2

## Context

Smith contrasts this with systems where farmers invest their own capital, arguing that when proprietors bear all costs and risks, they have no incentive to maximize production beyond subsistence needs, while when farmers invest personally, they strive to maximize returns on their capital.

## Economic Domain

Production

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