Steve Kates writes 

<<It was, in fact, the early classics who pointed out that in an area ruled
by some member of the nobility that the common people would be better off if
the local member of the landed aristocracy was an absentee landlord.>>

The exact opposite, then, of  "the foot of a master is the best manure"

This latter point genuinely does have classical precedents – being repeated
in agricultural manuals in various forms since the time of Cato.

But if we consider Xenophon (Economicus (XII, 20) : 

"The King of Persia..... asked one of those who were considered knowing
about horses what would fatten a horse soonest, it is said that he answered
'the master's eye.'"

We might well suspect this contrary point to have a prehistoric, Babylonian
origin.

Thus it would be useful if Steve Kates could cite who, in the “early
classics”, was involved in overturning perhaps 3,000 years of wisdom?
 
In the particular case I cited earlier, the absentee landlord, Clanranald,
wasted all the vast profits of the industry, and more besides, alongside the
Prince Regent at Brighton gambling tables.  The bust bankrupted him.

I have not studied the biographies of those promoting the classic economic
writers much, but I seem to recall McCulloch made his living as a young man
arranging the affairs of absentee landlords in the West Highlands.  

So I feel a need to declair an interest, on behalf of the late Mr McCulloch.

Rob Tye, York, UK