Feliciana sentinel. [volume] (St. Francisville, La.) 1877-1892, 1891-02-14
Food for Esefiectsyhk LAND Val.

gleanings from history that may be OF
especial interest to those who look upon
| the land value tax as the ideal tax.
Space forbids giving moro than brief
glance at the subject; but it may serve
as a 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 common good as old rs society. But,
so far 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,
the Jews. They had system of land
tenure to which the lords of England
could give hearty assent; for the land
OF family, even if it passed from pos
session, reverted back each fifty years.
They had system of taxation, but it
was tenth of the actual 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
tenth of the agricultural product to the
government called decumon. The oc-
cupiers of pasture lands paid tax on
their fioclSs 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
entific idea of a 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
ed to population. The Danegeld was
proportioned to the cultivation. When,
after Norman conquest, the feudal sys-
tenn began to develop, the Danegeld or
hidage disappeared and the carncatc
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 plow could cultivate
in one season. and was probably ecual
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
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 We're 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 I656) taxing act |
was passed (see Stephen Dowell's His |
tory of Taxation, vol. III, pages 76 and |
~. 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 them to deduct on |
payment of their rent so much tax as.
in respect of rent, the landlord ought to
bear. This deduction all landlords, me-
date or immediate, according to their
respective interests, are required to al
low, upon receipt of residue of rent In
short, payment of the tax is consid-
cred pro tanto a payment of rent to the
landlord. Power is given to the divis-
ional commission to settle differences
between landlords and tenants.
The word rent, though, in this act is
used, not in the strict economic sense of
ground rent, but in the popular sense
According to J. Thorold Rogers
("Economic Interpretation of History"
p $50, Cromwell's heavy direct tax was
thrown off as intolerable after the re-
storation.
In 1891 the great English philosopher,
DIR. John Locke. published pamphlet
entitled considerations on the lower
ng of interest and raising the value of
This contains, according to Dugald
Stewart, an eminent lecturer on political
the first part of this century.
,he first written advocacy of territor-
lal tax. which was afterward developed
by the great French school
of physiocrats, of which Quesney was
he founder.
The following extracts will show its
enor:
A tax laid upon land seems hard to
he land owner, because it is so much
money going visibly out of his pocket:
md therefore, as an ease to himself, the
landlord is always forward to lay it on
commodities. But if he will thoroughly
it and examine the effect he
will find that he buys this seeming ease
1t very dear rate. And although he
bay not this tax Immediately out of his
'wn purse, yet his purse will find 1t by
! greater want of money there at the
md of the year than that comes to, with
he lessening of his rents to boot. which
6 a settled and 10 a.. | :,