Page:Reflections on the Formation and the Distribution of Riches by Anne Turgot.djvu/76

Rh when a Debtor is sued by his Creditor and compelled to give his estate up to him.

S57
Valuation of lands in accordance with the proportion which the revenue bears to the amount of moveable wealth, or the value, for which they are exchanged: this proportion is what is called the penny of the price of lands.

It is evident that if a piece of land which produces a revenue equal to six sheep can be sold for a certain value which can always be expressed by a number of sheep equivalent to this value, this number will have a definite proportion to the number six, and will contain it a certain number of times. The price of an estate then will be simply so many times its revenue; twenty times if the price is a hundred and twenty sheep, thirty times if it is a hundred and eighty sheep. Thus the current price of lands regulates itself in accordance with the relation in which the value of the estate stands to the value of the revenue, and the number of times that the price of the estate contains the revenue is called the penny of the price of lands. Lands are sold for the twentieth penny, the thirtieth, the fortieth, etc., when people pay twenty, thirty, or forty times their revenue in order to get them. It is also evident that this price, or this penny, must vary according as there are more or fewer people who wish to sell or buy lands; just