78 RA TES AND TAXES 



find two principles recognised. If we adopt 

 modern phraseology, we may say that from 

 the earliest times a distinction was drawn 

 between rates for " beneficial " and f< >r 

 " onerous " services. If, for example, land 

 was to be improved by a general system 

 of drainage, each person whose property 

 was benefited paid in proportion to the 

 acreage, or to the value of his land. 1 



But rates were also imposed for non- 

 beneficial purposes, e.g., for repairing the 

 town fortifications. 



With regard to these charges, the accepted 

 view in the fourteenth and fifteenth centu- 

 ries was, that each inhabitant should pay 

 according to his "ABILITY and SUBSTANCE." 

 In actual history the term that constantly 

 recurs is not " land-values," but the much 

 more general expression, " ability and 

 substance." 



1 Cannan, p. 21. 



