GROUND RENT A SOCIAL PRODUCT 29
rent of land, are altogether owing to the good government of the
sovereign, which, by protecting the industry either of the whole
people, or of the inhabitants of some particular place, enables
them to pay so much more than its real value for the ground
which they build their houses upon; or make to its owner so
much more than compensation for the loss which he might
sustain by this use of it. Nothing can be more reasonable than
that a fund which owes its existence to the good government of
the State, should be taxed peculiarly, or should contribute
something more than the greater part of other funds, toward
the support of that government.”—Adam Smith, “ Wealth of
Nations,” Book V., Chapter 11., Part 2, Art. I.
“The ordinary progress of a society which increases in
Wealth is at all times tending to augment the incomes of land
lords ; to give them both a greater amount and a greater propor
tion of the wealth of the community, independently of any
trouble or outlay incurred by themselves. They grow richer,
as it were in their sleep, without working, risking, or
economising.”-—John Stuart Mill, “Principles of Political
Economy,” Book V., Chapter II., Sec. 5, Par. 2.
“ Ground rent is the advantage accruing to landowners from
the use of certain uncreated or socially created powers and
utilities connected with land, including, besides mere fertility
°f soil, also mineral wealth, water privileges, location, etc.
“ Let a considerable number of human beings settle in a
new country: special value instantly attaches to particular
localities, and this with no act of creation save the act of the
People in coming there. . . . Such dearness, springing
though it does from a sort of human agency, is not the product
°f conscious doing on the part of any one person. In bringing
into being, A, B, and C were instruments, not agents.”—
Andrews, “Institutes of Economics,” p. 168, and footnote.
o
“The utility of a piece of land may be increased by the
natural growth of the community, when no labour is exerted
directly to increase the usefulness of the particular tract of
