Well, “value” is a very baseline concept. You can create value out of thin air—e.g. by singing (you can create negative value the same way :-D). For economists this concept of value is too encompassing—in most cases they prefer to talk about good and services, even better, tradeable goods and services. With these, things are easier: you can gauge their value when they trade and measure it in money. There are certain downfalls here, of course (ask an environmentalist :-/) but for most basic economics you can assume that the value of something is how much dollars/euros/gold coins/sheep you can sell it for.
So with our peasant, let’s say he was able to grow 10 bushels of rye on his forest field and their value was 100 thalers—so the “revenue” from this economic activity was 100 thalers and all of it went to the peasant. Afterwards the “revenue” was still 100 thalers, but 75 of them went to the peasant and 25 -- to the lord. Note how the total sum didn’t change—this means we’re talking about pure redistribution here.
Value destruction is also possible (you can usually treat it just as negative value). Let’s say that the cost of maintaining and working this field is 80 thalers. While the peasant was working it for himself, his “profit” was 20 thalers and that made him happy. Now, after the lord showed up, he gets only 75 thalers but spends 80 -- he’s in the red! So he abandons the field and the forest swallows it back. Our lord just destroyed some value with his rent-seeking.
Well, “value” is a very baseline concept. You can create value out of thin air—e.g. by singing (you can create negative value the same way :-D). For economists this concept of value is too encompassing—in most cases they prefer to talk about good and services, even better, tradeable goods and services. With these, things are easier: you can gauge their value when they trade and measure it in money. There are certain downfalls here, of course (ask an environmentalist :-/) but for most basic economics you can assume that the value of something is how much dollars/euros/gold coins/sheep you can sell it for.
So with our peasant, let’s say he was able to grow 10 bushels of rye on his forest field and their value was 100 thalers—so the “revenue” from this economic activity was 100 thalers and all of it went to the peasant. Afterwards the “revenue” was still 100 thalers, but 75 of them went to the peasant and 25 -- to the lord. Note how the total sum didn’t change—this means we’re talking about pure redistribution here.
Value destruction is also possible (you can usually treat it just as negative value). Let’s say that the cost of maintaining and working this field is 80 thalers. While the peasant was working it for himself, his “profit” was 20 thalers and that made him happy. Now, after the lord showed up, he gets only 75 thalers but spends 80 -- he’s in the red! So he abandons the field and the forest swallows it back. Our lord just destroyed some value with his rent-seeking.