and that is, that men ought to live up to their agreements. We accordingly give our verdict to B. And we do this with the more confidence because we believe that, when the disadvantages become clearly preponderant, you will find a way to overcome them without shocking the moral sense of distant observers.”
IV.
Are the taxes on land in this country high enough or not? Is economic rent sufficient in amount to support government? We will consider these questions in their relation to agriculture.
The generally received idea of the single-tax party is that held by the physiocrats, that all wealth proceeds from agriculture, using that term to include all the products of the earth and the sea. This is a corollary of Mr. George's book, although I believe he has not explicitly affirmed it. I find an apt statement of it in the “Twentieth Century” of August 3d, viz.:
“Where all land is occupied, the annual rental value of the land of a nation is, theoretically, equivalent to its net annual production—that is, to the total production, less sustenance, interest, and replacement. This, through private land-ownership, is now all absorbed by a small number of individuals.”[1]
It is needless to say that mere space, which is not applied to the growing or gathering or mining of anything, is not to be included in the wealth-producing parts of the earth's surface, according to the physiocratic conception—such as lots in towns and cities. If all wealth comes from the earth by means of agriculture, mining, hunting, and fishing, why should not they pay all the expenses of government and a fund besides for the general use? Would not those industries, after such deductions, still be as well off as the industries which have no share in the land? Is not the whole of a thing equal to all of its parts?
It is true that man draws his sustenance from the earth, and that the annual surplus which takes the form of capital, of whatever sort, there has its start. But where does agriculture begin and end? It is commonly supposed to begin with the making of roads, the clearing of land, and the destruction of beasts of prey. But, before land can be cleared, tools must be made. Axes, plows, spades, wagons, bows and arrows, gunpowder perhaps, must be manufactured. And where does it end? All production is undertaken to satisfy man's wants. These are not satisfied when a bale of cotton has been picked or a ton of wheat gathered into a barn. The wheat must be ground into flour, the flour must be baked
- ↑ I do not find any explanation of the word “theoretically,” but I suppose that it was not used without a purpose. Theoretically a man who owns the only coal mine on the line of a railroad has a valuable monopoly, but it may turn out practically that he only has the privilege of working it on terms fixed by the railroad. I can point to cases of this kind.
