Both the original version(in German) and its English translation of this part are available on the web as well.
A landowner is free either to cultivate his/her land or to lie it fallow to recovery its fertility, and he/she never lends his/her land without rent which can be considered as a compensation for lying it fallow.
So how much will be the rent? Supposing that the whole Earth is possessed privately and is used now for the agriculture with no chance to increase even more the productivity, the landowner has the absolute power. Those who have no land have no other option than borrowing the land and paying high rent just to maintain themselves and their family as far as the rent enable them to survive.
But fortunately the Earth(of course as of 1916 when Gesell wrote this book) was much wider to produce the enough food to maintain the whole population of the world, even the most fertile lands were already possessed privately and some money will be needed to clear the virgin lands of the Americas, of Africa or of Australia, on top of considering the cost to export the food produced there for Europe. These conditions calculate the rent, and workers will remain in Europe if it's relatively low and will emigrate to other continents if it's relatively high(the huge outflow of a population from a certain area will decrease workforce, will increase wage and the rent will be lowered to a certain level).
Costs for transportation and customs
should be considered by those who want to emigrate on top of the
cost for their trip. This cost enables rent to keep a certain
level. If $10 is needed to export a ton of wheat you produced
in a freeland(where you don't need to pay rent) in Canada, a German
landowner can charge the equivalent of $10 for a ton for rent.
This will equalize the price of the same product anywhere in the
world, says Gesell.
(mig@lime.plala.or.jp)