Editing Land value tax (section)

===Pre-modern===
The philosophies and concepts underpinning land value taxation were discussed in ancient times, stemming from taxes on [[crop yield]]. For example, [[Rishi]]s of ancient India claimed that land should be held in common, and that unfarmed land should produce the same tax as productive land. "The earth ...is common to all beings enjoying the fruit of their own labour; it belongs...to all alike"; therefore, "there should be left some for everyone". [[Apastamba]] said "If any person holding land does not exert himself and hence bears no produce, he shall, if rich, be made to pay what ought to have been produced".<ref>{{cite book|title=Papers of the Manchester Literary Club, Volume 33|date=2012|publisher=Manchester Literary Club|isbn=978-1-176-12707-4|page=503|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=h9wKAAAAYAAJ|page=503}}|access-date=25 May 2015}}</ref>

[[Mencius]]<ref>{{Cite book|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=Rcn-ugEACAAJ}}|title=The Story of Civilization, Volume 1: The Ancient World|isbn=978-1-5051-0566-7|language=en|page=684|first1=Will |last1=Durant |author-link1=Will Durant|first2=Ariel |last2=Durant|author-link2= Ariel =Durant|publisher=Simon and Schuster |location=New York|year= 1942 }}</ref> was a Chinese philosopher (around 300 BCE) who advocated for the elimination of taxes and tariffs, to be replaced by the public collection of urban land rent: "In the market-places, charge land-rent, but don't tax the goods."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Muller|first1=Charles|title=Mencius (Selections)|url=http://www.acmuller.net/con-dao/mencius.html|access-date=25 May 2015}}</ref>

During the Middle Ages, in the West, the first regular and permanent land tax system was based on a unit of land known as the [[Hide (unit)|hide]]. The hide was originally the amount of land sufficient to support a household. It later became subject to a land tax known as "geld".<ref name=lapidge238>{{cite book|first1=Michael |last1=Lapidge|first2=Malcolm |last2=Godden|first3=Simon |last3=Keynes|title=Anglo-Saxon England|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=k6kSRKibqagC}}|date=4 March 1999|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-62243-1}}</ref>