The House of Comracers has during the past week been
occupied with the Committee stage of the Finance Bill. The frequent application of the Closure has, however, for the most part deprived the debates of any sense of reality. The speeches become like speeches on the scaffold. The condemned person is allowed to occupy a certain amount of time, but every one knows that nothing he says will have the slightest effect upon the executioner. In the course of Monday's discussion Mr. Balfour pointed out that it was absurd to argue that land was in a special position because its value was enhanced, not through any effort of the owner, but purely through the growth and prosperity of the community. The values of other things, as he very justly pointed out, are quite as much due to this cause. Here, of course, Mr. Balfour was only following Bastiat's well-known teaching as to value. The cause causans of value is always demand, and demand necessarily increases with the growth of prosperity and the improved organisation of the community. For example, a man's skill to cure or teach or paint will be much more highly remunerated in a large and civilised community than in one which is poor and primitive. The only cases in which a growing demand does not mean enhanced value are those in which supply is unlimited.
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