Apart from the fact that it disregards the rapid change 
of the values of usufruct in the above-mentioned places, 
that standard of assessment must prove oppressive and 
burdensome where the house-owners obtain higher rents 
than would correspond to the usual interest borne by build- 
ings. That is the case, however, as éxperience proves, in 
communities of the said kind, with houses containing small 
sets of rooms, particularly dwellings for work-people, because 
there the greater wear and tear and the greater uncertainty 
of the payment of rent will naturally raise the rent, Now, 
the house-taxes being usually shifted off by the owners upon 
the tenants, the standard of assessment according to the 
annual value of usufruct often calls forth a further rise of 
the rent of small dwellings. This undesirable effect is 
avoided by taxing the monetary value of the buildings, which, 
in a certain number of towns, has already brought about a 
remarkable exoneration of the houses with small dwellings. 
On the other hand, such an alteration of the standard of 
assessment must lead to a heavier taxation of such more 
valuable buildings as only yield a moderate interest. This, 
as experience shows, holds good particularly with regard to 
houses occupied by better class people. 
In order, therefore, to remedy such defects and draw- 
backs by a more uniform and just taxation of pieces of 
ground, whether built upon or not, and, at the same time, 
in some measure at least, to tax the easy gain obtained by 
ground-jobbers through the increment of value, the Mi- 
nisters advised the local communities, when issuing new 
rate-regulations, to choose the standard of the ‘common 
value’, i. e. the usual selling-price (gemeiner Wert), in order 
to ensure a more effective and uniform taxation of grounds, 
whether built upon or not. This standard of assessment 
is all the more recommendable, because its adoption does not 
offer any great difficulties, inasmuch as, for the beginning, 
the government assessment of the property-tax on the diffe- 
rent buildings may be used as a basis. 
Appendix I contains the first four paragraphs of a