120 RATES AND TAXES 



the average, and in the ordinary and expected 

 course of things, a fair or ordinary profit. 

 What constitutes a fair or ordinary profit 

 will, of course, depend on circumstances, and 

 inter alia, on the chance of profit in other 

 employments or investments. But it may 

 be said that, at any rate, something more is 

 expected than a bare return in the way of 

 interest ; something more than could be 

 obtained without trouble or risk by in- 

 vesting the same capital in some first-class 

 security. What the actual rate of ordinary 

 agricultural profit may be, is not of so 

 much importance as the fact that under 

 competition it ought to be uniform through- 

 out ; that is, for equal masses of capital and 

 equal abilities. If in one county or district 

 the rates were high relatively to its 

 neighbour, the landowner could only secure 

 tenants by paying the differential part of the 

 rates. And in both districts, it is argued, the 



