18 



ROOT MATTERS IN SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROBLEMS. 



improved machines or methods of cultivation ; rent falling 

 with the reverse of these conditions. On the whole, therefore, 

 rent, interest, mortgage, and working farmers' share of profit 

 resolve themselves into mere sub-divisions of the total profit 

 due to farm speculations drawn from sale of products, the 

 balance of sale of products being absorbed by wages and 

 miscellaneous expenses of working, all entirely governed by, 

 and not exceeding, the total revenue of products, the amount 

 of which is regulated by the local competition of similar 

 goods that may be conveyed in any market from foreign as 

 well as local sources. It is absurd, therefore, to suppose that 

 a tax upon land does not enter into the ultimate cost of the 

 product just as surely as the items of charge known under 

 the names of interest, mortgage, wages of farm servants, 

 profit of farmer ; for as soon as the prices governed by local 

 and foreign competition fail to cover all the items of 

 expenditure and minimum of profit, so soon will a check 

 appear to Production, so far as the land which is so effected 

 is concerned. There is no trick of words about this result. 

 Every practical farmer knows it too well, although he may 

 not understand the word-splitting and theory-chopping of 

 some speculative Economists. Thus, with average energy 

 and skill, if the produce per year of a grain farm at cur- 

 rent prices only covers the minimum of wages and ordinary 

 working expenses, and minimum of profit to farmer by ,£50, 

 then such farm could only yield that sum for all other charges, 

 whether tax, rent, mortgage, or interest. It is immaterial to 

 the farmer whether the charges be distributed over all these 

 items thus : — 



£ s. 



Tax 12 10 



Eent 12 10 



Mortgage 12 10 



Interest 12 10 



Total 



... £50 



Or simply thus : 



Tax ... 

 Eent ... 

 Mortgage 

 Interest 



Total 



£ 

 50 

 nil 

 nil 



nil 



£50 



The effect upon production, producer, and consumer would 

 be exactly the same. If this sum of £50 could be disposed 



