QUESTIONS OF TAXATION. 161 



burden on land in other parts of the world. 

 For that is the one important economic factor 

 in land taxation. Whether this or that tax has 

 been commuted, or is paid by landlord or 

 tenant, is really immaterial. To put the issue 

 in its baldest form : Here is an area of English 

 agricultural land, capable with careful industry 

 of producing so much wealth a year ; how much 

 of that wealth is exacted by the community for 

 community purposes, and what benefit does the 

 community give in return for that exaction ? 

 How do the exaction and the benefit compare 

 with the conditions elsewhere, in the countries 

 whose agricultural acres enter into competition 

 with the English acres ? On comparison does 

 the English acre get a " fair deal " ? 



The question of the fairness or otherwise of 

 a rate of taxation cannot be separated from the 

 question of the benefit that is conferred in 

 return for that taxation. Take four imaginary 

 areas of land. Area A is in a country with little 

 or no means of communication to markets pro- 

 vided by the community, remote from the chief 

 conveniences of civilization, its owner left to do 



the best he can by his own efforts to make a 



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