VALUE OF LAND AN UNTAXED VALUE 45 
The beauty of this illustration is that (in a classi 
fication which excludes duplication by certificates or 
mere legal evidences of property, like stocks, bonds, 
etc., and includes only actual tangible property) 
While land stands as always for everything except the 
products of labour, a house is here made to stand as 
the representative of any and all products of individual 
labour, that is, for everything except land, and the 
illustration thus becomes all inclusive. 
If you have had the patience to follow it under 
standing^ you may rest assured that you have mas 
tered a basic principle of taxation, and have solved one 
of the most perplexing problems of political economy. 
What the Authorities Say of The Third Leg of the 
Single Tax Tripos, viz.: That the Selling Value 
of Land Is an Untaxed Value. 
“The land tax, which is next on the list, should equally cause 
but little controversy. It is persistently claimed as a burden 
Upon land, or land owners; but this will not bear scrutiny when 
w e inquire out of whose income the tax is paid, or what way it 
causes pressure, so that its reduction or abolition would be a 
benefit to the community. 
“As a fixed charge upon land for generations, it is now past all 
controversy a rent-charge. In many instances it has long since 
been redeemed, the property having subsequently changed 
bands; in others, inheritors of property have acquired it under 
the burden, and have calculated their income minus the tax, 
while purchasers, in buying, invariably allow for it. To reduce” 
(abolish ?) “it now would be to present the landowners of 
England with a capital sum of nearly £30,000,000. Their 
estates, relieved of the burden, would become at once so much 
u^ote valuable, and if they did not sell, they would pocket an 
additional income which they never inherited or paid for.”—Sir 
Robert Gijfen, “Essays in Finance ” First Series, p. 242.