Feliciana sentinel., 1891-02-14
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
TAXATION AND THE LAND VAL
uE TAX.


AND THE LAND VAL
uE TAX.
In the study Of question of SO vital
import to q nation as is the question Of
taxation, It Is important that 1t should
be Investigated and weighed not only in
its present 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.
Space forbids giving more 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 as 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 matter OF
modern history. Take, for instance,
the Jews. They had a 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 q 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 q
tenth of the agricultural product to the
| government called decumon. The oc-
cupiers of pasture lands paid a tax on
their f1ocks 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 We're 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 carncate
was employed, Norman term of SIM
liar import. Both the hidage and earn
cate, from which the tax tooks its name,
were crude measure of land. The
carncate was determined by what eight
pair of oxen and plow could cultivate
in one season. and was probably equaa
to about one hundred acres.
Then came the scutage or shield tax,
which the knights, who were also land
lords, paid in commutation of those OBJ
legations to the crown. This was also a
direct tax upon his whole property. A
the English became more and more ar
Industrial people, a large proportion o.
the taxes very gradually shifted upor
the different forms of industry. Though
in 1882, "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 (1656} taxing ac'
was passed (see Stephen Dowell's His
tory of Taxation, vol III, pages rs 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 OF
payment of their rent SO much tax as
in respect of rent, the landlord ought tx
bear. This deduction all landlords, me
diate or immediate, according to theil
respective interests, are required to al
low, upon receipt of residue of rent II
short, payment of the tax is consid
cred pro tanto a payment of rent to tht
landlord. Power is given to the divis
ional commission to settle differences
between landlords and tenants.
The word rent, though, in this act il
used, not in the strict economic sense o
ground rent, but in the popular sense
According to ]. Thorold Roger
(..Economic Interpretation of History,
p. 457), Cromwells heavy direct tax wa
thrown off as intolerable after the re
storation.
In 1891 the great English philosopher
| LII. JOHn Locke, PuDllSneO psaInphlc
entitled Considerations on the lower
ing of interest and raising the value o
! money"
This contains, according to Dugal
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 develope'
scientifically by the great French schoo
of physiocrats, of which Quesney wa
the founder.
The following extracts will show it
tenor:
A tax laid upon land seems hard T.
the land owner, because it is so mucl
| money going visibly out of his pocket