Economic essays

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1753623200

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-136107

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Economic essays

Place of publication:: New York

Publisher:: Macmillan

Year of publication:: 1927

Scope:: viii, 368 S.; Ill., graph. Darst.

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Land economics / Richard T. Ely

Collection:: Economics Books

120 ECONOMIC ESSAYS IN HONOR OF JOHN BATES CLARK Ricardian theory of rent has had less influence, more attention has been given to land as a factor in production, and at least the beginnings of classification of land are found in German economic treatises. The Complexity of the Land Concept. So long as land was considered as if it were one thing, a unit, and a thing producing an income of an entirely peculiar character, a development of land economies could not be expected. However, when we recall that the term land, as used by economists, means the forces of nature, so far as they have economic significance, 1t seems a little absurd to regard them all as belonging to one simple economic category or class. How diverse are the forces of nature! And what can we say about all these forces which have much scientific or practical value? Some things of real value, to be sure, can be said. Nevertheless, we cannot get very far scien- tifically or practically so long as we regard land as an undiffer- entiated whole. We can test this statement by calling to mind some of the popular discussions in regard to land. Public versus private ownership is much debated. But it is ridiculous from any point of view to say of land as a whole that it should be owned publicly or that it should be owned privately. We must first know of what kind of land we are speaking. Practically all agree that our city streets and rural highways should in general be publicly owned, and that privately owned toll roads are usually, though not always, an anachronism. Experts are for the most part agreed that forests should be owned by some public body, national, state or local political unit, although an important place is also found for private ownership. But for the great bodies of water, covering more than half of the earth’s surface, the nations of the world reject the idea of either public or private ownership, and stand for the idea that the seas are free, common, ownerless goods, like the air we breathe. On the other hand, the experience of the world and the nature of the case speak overwhelmingly for private ownership of purely agricultural land. Thus, not even one problem in land utilization, such as ownership, can be handled satisfactorily without consideration of the different kinds of land. Another statement that we hear is that land should be brought into use: and it is proposed by some to tax land to the point of

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: Economic essays

Monograph

Chapter

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

Chapter

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation