The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1891-04-11
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
TAXATION AND THE LAND VAL
UE TAX.


taxation, it is important that it should
he investigated and weighed not only in
It's prcseslt aspects, but also in its his
torical features.
therefore propose to present few
gleanings from history that may be of
especial interest to those who look upon
the land value tax as the ideal tax
Srece forbids giving more than brief
glance at the subject; but it may serve
as guide to those who wish to go more
fully into the matter
The historical study of the subject of
taxation Is attended with some diff
Guilty, as most historians, while record
ing battles and court intrigues, have
paid too little attention to the economic
side of history.
The idea that the earth is the COM
mon heritage of man, is as old as hui
man intelligence, and the contributing
of individuals of wealth and services to
the cornrnon good as old as society. But,
so ia, as can discover, the idea of max
ing every man contribute, not in pro-
portion to his wealth, but in proportion
to the value of natural or economic OPP
portunities he controls, is a matter of
modern history. Take, for instance,
tho Jews. They had system of land
tenure to which the lords of England
could give hearty assent; for the land
of a family, even If it passed from pos
session, reverted back each fifty years.
They had a system of taxation, but it
was a tenth of the act1al product; not
of the potential product.
The Greeks and Romans also had
highly developed systems of taxation of
property, occupations and individuals.
In renting of the ager publicus, or pub
lie lands, like the jews they had some
thing akin to land value tax. In Rome
the tenant of the ager publicus gave a
tenth of the agricultural product to the
government called decumon. The oc-
cupiers of pasture lands paid a tax on
their fiocxs called scripton, though the
rate is not known. The salt mines were
rented out and the rent or tax was called
salmon. The other mines were also
rented out by the government.
But in passing, as we may naturally,
from Rome over to England, we find
that while the primitive England that
succeeded Roman domination had no sci
cntific idea of u land tax, yet they had
something that was akin, though it also
was based not upon control of natural
opportunities, used or unused, but upon
actual production. The ship tax, which
might be an exception, was proportion
cd to population. The Danegeld was
proportioned to the cultivation. When,
after Norman conquest, the feudal sys-
TEN began to develop, the Danegeld or
Sidage disappeared and the carncate
was employed, Norman term of SIM
liar import. Both the hidage and earn
cate, from which the tax looks its name,
were a crude measure of land. The
carncate was determined by what eight
pair of oxen and a pillow could cultivate
In one season, and was probably equal
TO about one hundred acres.
Then came the scutage or shield tax,
which the knights, who were also land
lords, paid in Communication of those OBJ
legations to the crown. This was also a
direct tax upon his whole property. As
the English became more and more an
industrial people, large proportion OF
the taxes very gradually shifted upon
the different forms of industry. Though
in 1882, a bad year." the Landlords
paid the whole tax"
As the land owners were also the rul-
ing classes it is easy to see how it was
they gradually transferred the burdens
upon industry, where it largely remains
to this day.
In Cromwell's time 1850 taxing act
was passed tsee Stephen Doweli's His
tory of Taxation, vol. I'LL. pages IS and
10, which provides that
The tenants of houses and lands rated
to the tax are required to pay the whole
tax rate to use such houses and lands
and power is given then. to deduct or
payment of their rent so much tax as
in respect of rent, the landlord ought te
bear This deduction all landlords, me
date or immediate, according to theil
respective interests, are required to al
low, upon receipt of residue of rent. In
short, payment of the tax is consid
cred pro tanto payment of rent to the
landlord. Power is given to the divis
ional commission to settle difference.
between landlords and tenants
The word rent, though, in this act i.
uSett not IN the StTlct ccOuoiHiC ScHSc "
ground rent, but in the popular sense
According to j. Thorold Rogers
(ssEconomic Interpretation of History,
D. 457), CromwelIs heavy direct tax wa.
thrown off as intolerable after the re
storation.
In 1901 the great English philosopher
DIR. John Locke, published a pamphlets
entitled Considerations on the lower
ing of interest and raising the value o
money"
This contains, according to Dugalt
Stewart, an eminent lecturer on politica
economy the first part of this century
the first written advocacy of a territor
'ial tax. which was afterward developed
scientifically by the great French schoo
Of physiocrats, of which Quesney wa
the founder.
The following extracts win show it
tenor: -