This volume is the first ever English translation of Part III of von Thünen`s famous 'Isolated State'. It deals with the optimum rotation period of woods - a central problem of capital theory which has been studied by many famous economists. Thünen's early approach to the problem compares very well with most of the later attempts.

JOHANN HEINRICH VON THÜNEN (1783-1850) was a prominent nineteenth-century economist, who is credited with a number of important anticipations of modern economic theory, such as the concepts of economic rent, diminishing returns, and marginal productivity. For the most of his life Thünen worked in isolation on his agricultural estate, Tellow, in Mecklenburg. According to Nobel Prize winner Paul Samuelson, Thünen 'belongs in the Pantheon with Leon Walras, John Stuart Mill, and Adam Smith'. Both the Tellow estate and Thünen`s grave, which has his famous formula for the natural wage engraved on it, can still be visited today.   ULRICH VAN SUNTUM is Professor of Economics at the Muenster University in Germany. He was formerly secretary general of the German Council of Economic Advisors and is engaged in both economic research and policy advice. His preferred areas of research are capital theory, labour economics, history of economic thought, and regional and housing economics. He has written several articles on Johann Heinrich von Thünen, both in German and in English.