500 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



supply of land can neither be increased nor diminished. In answer 

 to it we have the indisputable fact that the owners of land, when- 

 ever taxes are increased, attempt to obtain an increased rental for 

 it if the circumstances will permit it. And the very attempt tends 

 to increase the rent. Nothing but adverse circumstances, such as 

 diminishing population or commercial and industrial distress, can 

 prevent a rise in the rental of land on which the taxes are increased ; 

 and in the case of dwellings and warehouses the rise is almost always 

 very prompt, because no man will erect new dwellings or warehouses 

 unless their rent compensate fully the increase of taxation. And in 

 any prosperous community, in which population increases in the 

 natural ratio, there must be a constant increase of dwellings and 

 warehouses to prevent a rise of rent, independent of higher wages 

 and higher taxation. In no other occupation is capital surer of ob- 

 taining the average net remuneration than in the erection of dwell- 

 ings and warehouses, and nothing but lack of general prosperity and 

 diminishing population can throw the burden of taxation on real 

 estate or its owners, without the slightest attempt at combination on 

 their part. If the owners of land are not reimbursed for its taxation 

 by its occupants, new houses " would not be erected, the old ones 

 would wear out, and after a time the supply would be so small that 

 the demand would raise rents, and house building begin again, the 

 tax having been transferred to the occupier." 



It is pertinent at this point to notice the averment that is fre- 

 quently made, that cultivators of the soil can not incorporate taxes 

 on the land in the price of their products, because the price of 

 their whole crop is fixed by the price at which any portion of it can 

 be sold in foreign markets. In answer to this we have first the fact 

 that, to give the population of the world an adequate supply of 

 food and other agricultural products, it is not only necessary that all 

 the land at present under cultivation shall continue to be so em- 

 ployed, but further that new lands shall each year be brought under 

 cultivation, or else the land already cultivated shall be made more 

 productive. 



The population of the world steadily increases, notwithstanding 

 wars, epidemics, and all the evils which are consequences of man's 

 ignorance and of his improper use of things, his own faculties in- 

 cluded. Hence, in case of increased taxation on land, the cultivator 

 of the soil is generally enabled to transfer easily and promptly the 

 burden of the tax to the purchasers of the products he raises, without 

 abandoning the cultivation even of the least productive soil. 



Furthermore, the exports of many agricultural products are due 

 not to the cheapness of their cost of production, but to the variations 

 which occur in the productiveness of the crops of other countries. M. 



