30 NATURE OF CAPITAL AND INCOME [Cuae. II

competition with the property owner. It mainly consists
of the persons and plants of possible competing publishers;
and it does not matter whether their inactivity — their noncompetition
 — is purchased by a money payment or enforced
 by government intervention.
In like manner we may resolve the problem of irredeemable
 paper money. Where this exists in its purest
form, with no promise or intention of ultimate redemption
by the government which issues it, it amounts to a forced
loan, or rather, a levy. It is like a check drawn by the government
 upon the public, which each individual is obliged
to cash. It is an order to surrender on demand a certain
amount of the community’s goods. The government usually
 employs paper money to obtain ammunition or soldiers’
 supplies. The merchants who give these goods are
forced to accept paper money in return, and allowed to
recoup themselves by passing on these orders to others.
In this way people are deluded into believing that no one
really loses, but that the loss is perpetually passed on. The
loss is shifted, but nevertheless it exists; for, since a definite
quantity of supplies has been abstracted from the public
by the government, it is clear that this much loss has been
suffered, however it may be distributed by rotation. Thus,
irredeemable paper money is a claim on the general wealth
of a community. Of course it seldom occurs that it continues
 irredeemable, and when it becomes redeemable it
changes its character; for when the government assumes
the obligation involved, it becomes a special claim upon
the government gold and other wealth.
A somewhat similar vague property right is the government’s
 taxing power, which is the right to take from the
individual so much of the services or product of his wealth
as may be necessary for the public good. The heavier
the tax, the greater the reduction in the value of the individual
 wealth of the community. It is well known
that to nationalize land, as Henry George proposed, means