i 5 6

THE  A  B  C  OF  TAXATION

but  to  scores  of  things  exterior  to  the  land  and  through
it  made  available  for  use,  so  that,  as  applied  to  urban
land,  the  following  would  be  a  more  accurate  definition:
Ground  rent  is  the  annual  value  of  the  exclusive  Use
and  control  of  a  given  area  of  land,  involving  the
enjoyment  of  those  “rights  and  privileges  thereto
pertaining”  which  are  stipulated  in  every  title  deed,
and  which,  enumerated  specifically,  are  as  follows:
right  and  ease  of  access  to  water,  health  inspection,
sewerage,  fire  protection,  police,  schools,  libraries,
museums,  parks,  playgrounds,  steam  and  electric  railway ­
  service,  gas  and  electric  lighting,  telegraph  and
telephone  service,  subways,  ferries,  churches,  public
schools,  private  schools,  colleges,  universities,  public
buildings  —  utilities  which  depend  for  their  efficiency
and  economy  on  the  character  of  the  government;
which  collectively  constitute  the  economic  and  social
advantages  of  the  land;  and  which  are  due  to  the
presence  and  activity  of  population,  and  are  inseparable
therefrom,  including  the  benefit  of  proximity  to,  and
command  of,  facilities  for  commerce  and  communication ­
  with  the  world—an  artificial  value  created
primarily  through  public  expenditure  of  taxes.  In
practice,  the  term  “land”  is  erroneously  made  to
include  destructible  elements  which  require  constant
replenishment;  but  these  form  no  part  of  this  economic
advantage  of  situation  or  site  value.
Consequently  ground  rent  may  be  said  to  result  from
at  least  three  distinct  causes,  all  of  which  are  connected
with  aggregated  social,  as  distinguished  from  individual,
activity:  (i)  public  expenditure;  (2)  quasi-public
expenditure;  (3)  private  expenditure.  Thus  their
very  nature  and  origin  would  seem  to  point  to  land