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# Agricultural Improvement Discouragement

## Definition

The systematic barriers to agricultural development created by feudal institutions including primogeniture, entails, servile labor systems, insecure tenure, arbitrary taxation, and trade restrictions that prevented farmers from capturing the full value of their improvements.

## Source Chapter

Book III, Chapter 2

## Context

Smith presents this as the central thesis of the chapter, arguing that the legal and social institutions that emerged from post-Roman disorder created a comprehensive system that discouraged agricultural investment and improvement, contributing to Europe's prolonged economic backwardness compared to the Roman period.

## Economic Domain

Production

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