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CHAPTER I. 



PRELIMINARY MATTERS. 



SECTION I. VALUE OF PROPERTY GENERALLY. 



PROPERTY means an object which serves for the satisfaction 

 of a requirement. The degree of utility of a property indicates 

 its value. 



The value of property may present itself in various ways : 

 A piece of property may possess value, because it can be used 

 for a certain purpose (as articles of food), or for the production 

 of another kind or class of property (as a set of carpenters' 

 tools, or raw materials). 



Again, the value of a property may be general or special ; the 

 former is that which a property has in the open market ; the 

 latter is that which it has for a particular person (as a piece of 

 land situated in the middle of another estate), or under special 

 circumstances (as a loaf of bread in a famine-stricken district). 



By the price of a property is understood the amount of 

 another class of property which is offered for it in exchange ; 

 the ordinary means of exchange is money. 



The value of property can be ascertained in various ways, of 

 which four must be mentioned : 



(1) The expectation value, by which is understood the 



present net value of all yields which a property may 

 be able to give ; it is determined by discounting all 

 net incomes derivable from the property to the 

 present time. 



(2) The cost value,- or the total outlay on the acquisition or 



production of a property. 



