RENT 



4972 



REPLEVIN 



The restriction which has been mentioned is 

 this that economic rent comes only from land, 

 not in any degree from buildings which may be 

 upon it. Buildings, in so far as they help in 

 production, are capital, and the advantage 

 pained from them is interest, not rent (see 

 INTEREST). If the farm which you rent for 

 forty dollars has a granary upon it, part of 

 what you pay is for interest on that. In the 

 actual transaction you make no distinction be- 

 tween what the land is to earn and what the 

 granary will, but in economic reasoning this 

 distinction must be made, because the eco- 

 nomic laws which govern rent and those which 

 regulate interest are very different. 



Why Rent Exists and How Its Amount Is 

 Determined. If there were an unlimited 

 amount of the best land there would be no 

 rent, for certainly no piece of ground would 

 be of advantage to anyone if he could get an- 

 other just as good without effort or expense. 

 And, as it is the limit of supply which causes 

 rent, so the factors which influence the limita- 

 tion, which make land good, better or best to 

 possess, are those which control its rent. Chief 

 among these factors are the qualities which 

 nature gives the land, its location and the num- 

 ber of people who could reap its advantages. 



The easiest way of grasping the simpler 

 principles of rent is to suppose the case of the 

 settling of a small island. The first man to ar- 

 rive takes a part of the best land. The sec- 

 ond, when he comes, finds that there is still 

 some land equally good, so of course he has no 

 wish for the first man's farm; that is, there is 

 as yet no rent. Now, however, a third settler 

 appears. For him there is only second-grade 

 land, on which he can raise a crop of two thou- 

 sand bushels with the same labor which would 

 bring him three thousand on either of the other 

 two farms. So these two now have a rent of a 

 thousand bushels each, for this is their advan- 

 tage over the no-rent or marginal land, as the 

 other is called, since it is the poorest which it 

 is worth the newcomer's while to consider. 

 Soon a settler arrives who can find no unoc- 

 cupied land which will yield him -more than 

 one thousand bushels. This land now becomes 

 the marginal land, and a second-grade farm has 

 a rent of one thousand bushels, a first-grade 

 farm of two thousand. 



The Selling Price of Land. When the third 

 settler arrived on the imaginary island the 

 farms of the first two acquired a rent of one 

 thousand bushels. Assuming this quantity of 

 the commodity raised to be worth $500, how 



much can this man afford to pay for one of the 

 farms? The answer, of course, is a sum which, 

 if invested elsewhere, will return him $500 each 

 year. If the prevailing rate of interest for in- 

 vestments of corresponding degree of safety is 

 five per cent he can pay $10,000; if interest is 

 six per cent, $8,333. The actual price at which 

 land sells is never so easily determined, how- 

 ever, because the future is more to be consid- 

 ered than the present. In the days to come 

 the prices of agricultural produce may advance 

 or recede; interest may move up or down; 

 settlers may come to the island and increase 

 rental values; railroads 'may be built which will 

 decrease the difference in value of near-by and 

 far-off lands. Many such possibilities must be 

 considered by both purchaser and vender. This 

 is one reason why a knowledge of the principles 

 of rent may become an extremely valuable as- 

 set to any man or woman. 



To Whom Does Rent Belong? Because rent 

 depends on the presence of people and so, in a 

 sense, is created by the community, there are 

 many people who believe that private owner- 

 ship of land or appropriation of its rents is un- 

 just. The claim, of course, meets strenuous 

 opposition, but it is gaining in popularity. In- 

 teresting information on this point will be 

 found under the heading SINGLE TAX, and the 

 story of the remarkable experiments of one gov- 

 ernment in the article NEW ZEALAND. C.H.H. 



REPLEVIN. A owned a pasture adjoining 

 B's cornfield. Two of A's cows broke down the 

 fence and destroyed a portion of B's corn. B 

 found the cows in his field and drove them to 

 his barn. He refused to return them to A un- 

 til he received full compensation for the corn 

 destroyed. A appealed to the court for a writ 

 directing the sheriff to seize the cows and re- 

 turn them to him. A's action in law consti- 

 tuted a replevin; that is, an action to recover 

 goods or chattels that have been unlawfully 

 taken, or that are unlawfully detained. In a 

 writ of replevin the sheriff is directed to seize 

 the property described and to return it at once 

 to the party from whom it was taken, who is 

 known in the case as the plaintiff. In his ap- 

 plication for replevin the plaintiff must assure 

 the court by his bond, or otherwise, that what- 

 ever damages the defendant may be found en- 

 titled to will be paid. When the action is de- 

 cided in favor of the plaintiff he is entitled to 

 recover his property; in case it cannot be re- 

 stored he is entitled to an equivalent cash value, 

 together with such damages for its wrongful 

 seizure as the court may allow. In case the de- 



