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 rail 
way 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 communica 
tion 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