THE GROSS AND NET GAIN OF RISING WAGES. 649 



Sale of land in occupation of an individual is an act indicating 

 his intention to abandon it, a grant or conveyance being the 

 means established by social law to signify this intention. 



The purchaser, being the first acquainted with such purpose, 

 seizes the vacant land and is the next taker by natural law. 

 The consideration paid represents the capital and labor expended 

 in the land by all occupants, and the justice of such payment is 

 sustained by every principle of natural law and moral right, 

 since the capital and labor so expended represent all the com- 

 mercial value that the land possesses. 



And, finally, to deprive the individual of his occupancy and 

 possession, although it be to reinstate the owners in common, can 

 only be in natural justice and moral right upon payment of the 

 value of the capital and labor represented in the land, which is 

 the whole commercial value of the land. 



It follows, then, that the demands of natural justice and moral 

 right would be ignored if all taxes were put upon land, because 

 one form only of labor and capital would be thus compelled to 

 bear the whole burden of taxation. 







THE GROSS AND NET GAIN OF RISING WAGES. 



By ROBERT GIFFEN. 



IN the discussions to which former papers of mine on working- 

 class progress have given rise, there are some criticisms which 

 have interested me very much. They are made by members of 

 the working class themselves, who are slow enough to admit the 

 average increase of their money earnings in the last fifty years 

 which the figures demonstrate. But, admitting some increase of 

 money, they go on to say, and admitting, too, the low prices, the 

 improvement after all is not without drawbacks, or, as I have 

 suggested in the above title, it is mainly in the gross. There are 

 drawbacks which take away much of the apparent advantage. 

 A general statement like this, apart from particular allegations 

 to support it, could not but excite my attention, although I have 

 avoided hitherto any discussion of it. It is a good rule to do one 

 thing at a time. An improvement of money earnings and no 

 increase of prices appeared to be two points worth establishing, 

 whatever the drawbacks of a less apparent kind, and which the 

 working classes could themselves best appreciate, might be. But 

 while avoiding the discussion hitherto, I have been none the less 

 observant, for the simple reason that each class knows its own 

 grievances as no others can, and that such complaints, though 

 easy enough to prove unfounded, are apt to cover facts which 



