Mason Gaffney wrote:  
>What is historical is that one Wang-an Shih, a finance minister in the Sung  
>Dynasty about the time of the Norman conquest of England, successfully  
>promoted taxation of land, a policy that succeeded in perpetuating the  
>dynasty for another 200 years; and that Turgot, the Physiocrat, became known  
>as the French Confucius (probably Taoist would be more accurate); and that  
>George replicated most of Turgot's ideas (probably independently, with a  
>boost from Mill); and that Dr. Sun read George when in Hawaii, and  
>incorporated them as "right livelihood" in the San Min Chu I; and that  
>Taiwan idolized Dr. Sun, long after his death, and incorporated many of his  
>ideas in the land reform and tax reform policies, creating one of the  
>"Tiger" economies.  
  
I am not sure about the connection between Shih   
and Turgot, but I can add that the Taiwanese   
policy was advanced by the fact that General   
MacArthur was a Georgist and that his deputy,   
(whose name escapes me at the moment) who was   
responsible for reorganizing the land systems of   
Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea, was a   
Distributivist. The Kuomintang had never been   
able to carry out any meaningful reform on the   
mainland. However, under the twin impetus of the   
demands of MacArthur and the fear of a communist   
victory, Taiwan was able to reform their land   
system, a reform that transformed Taiwan from a   
feudal society to an industrial state within one   
generation, and did so with rising levels of   
equity and stability, in complete contradiction   
to the Kuznet's curve. Because of the twin   
influences of MacArthur and Sun Yat-sen, Georgism   
has had a greater sway in the East than in the West.  
  
  
John C. Medaille