Page:James Ramsay MacDonald - The Socialist Movement.pdf/63

 Rh market. A marsh outside a town is drained, up go rents; a tram-line is laid into the outskirts of a town, up go rents; a mining-shaft is sunk and a specially profitable seam of coal is struck, up go rents; the industrial prosperity of a town improves, up go rents; the people of a town acquire the habit of shopping in certain streets, up go rents; peasant intensive cultivation is shown to be profitable in certain directions, up go rents; free education is granted, up go rents.

The amount of rent is determined by the capacity of the community to buy, not by the value of the services rendered by the owners. It is a measure of monopoly. That a community which has improved its streets and educated its people should allow the possessors of its land to secure for themselves the financial counterparts of these benefits can have no justification either in reason or in morality, whilst from the point of view of economy it is waste.

Be it noted, however, that Socialism does not oppose rent, it only objects to rent belonging to private persons. These values are real. A shop in a frequented thoroughfare has a higher economic value than a shop in a back street; fine river loam has a higher agricultural value than sodden and heavy river clay; as the margin of cultivation widens the value of the old cultivated lands increases. Some one must benefit by economic rent. If it goes to the fortunate shopkeeper, as the advocates of leasehold enfranchisement used to claim, he is receiving