But why should the right of increase--let us not fear to call it by its right name, the right of robbery--be governed by reason, with which it has nothing in common?
The proprietor is not content with the increase allotted him by good sense and the nature of things: he demands ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times, a million times as much.

By his own labor, his property would yield him a product equal only to one; and he demands of society, no longer a right proportional to his productive capacity, but a per capita tax.

He taxes his fellows in proportion to their strength, their number, and their industry.

A son is born to a farmer.

"Good!" says the proprietor; "one more chance for increase!" By what process has farm-rent been thus changed into a poll-tax?
Why have our jurists and our theologians failed, with all their shrewdness, to check the extension of the right of increase?
The proprietor, having estimated from his own productive capacity the number of laborers which his property will accommodate, divides it into as many portions, and says: "Each one shall yield me revenue." To increase his income, he has only to divide his property.