young’s travels in prance.
4^7
tricate inquiries, which would demand long details, and a very minute examination ; butthe queftion is, in the prefent moment, of fiuch importance to France , that a rapid coupd'ail cannot but have its ufe. The following circumftances are thole which I conceiveform all the merit of taxation :
1. Equality.
2. Facility of payment.
3. Encouragement of induflry.
4. Eafe of collection.
5. Difficulty of too great extenfion.
The firil efiential point is equality. It is abfolutely neceffiary, that every individual inthe focietv contribute to the wants of the ftate, in proportion to his ability, provided fuchcontribution does not impede the progrefs of his induflry*. Every writer, and everyopinion upon the fubjefl: agree in this; but the difficulty is, how to afcertain the ability.Taxes on property, and taxes on coni'umption, feem to have this merit; they will, how-ever, be found to vary prodigioully ; for long experience, in all countries, has provedthe infinite difficulty of afcertaining property, and the tyranny that is neceffary to bepra&ifeu in order to be tolerably exa£t. For this reafon, all land-taxes, under an ap-pearance of equality, are cruelly unequal: if levied on the grofs produce in kind, theyare ten times heavier on poor land than on rich ; and the value taken by the (late, bearsno proportion to the expence which effected the production. If levied on the rent,the eafe of frauds makes them univerfal and perpetual; and if, to avoid thefe, theleafes are regiftered and taxed, this prevents leafes, and deftroys agriculture. If landsare valued by a cadajlre, the expence is enormous f, and the merit is gone in a fewyears, by variations impoffible to correft; till at laft the only merit of the tax is itsinequality, which is now the cafe in theMilanefe, Piedmont, Savoy, and England; wherean attempt to make the land-taxes equal would ruin the huibandry, and produce infi-nite oppreffion. Land taxes, fo far from being equal, are fo much the reverfe, that itis the nominal, and not the real property, that bears the tax; for mortgages efcape though
* Some little obfcurity, that hangs over this definition, fhould be removed ; by ability, mull not be under-stood either capital or income, but that fuperlucration, as Davenant called it, which melts in confumption.Suppofe a manufafturer makes a profit of 20col. a-year, living upon 500I. and annually inverting 1500I. inhis bufinefs, it is fufficiently obvious, upon juft principles, that the ftate cannot lay the 15C0I. under contri-bution by taxes. The 5C0I. is the only income expofed ; but when the manufafturer dies, and his foil turnsgentleman, the whole income is made to contribute. It mull be obvious, however, that excifes on a ma-nufacturer's fabric are not taxes on him, but on the idle confumer, for he draws them completely back. Inlike manner, if a landlord farm his own eftate, and expend the income in improvements, living on but afmall portion of the profit, it is fufficiently clear, that the taxes ought not to affeft one (hilling of his ex-penditure on his land ; they can reach, with propriety, the expences of his living only ; if they touch anyother part of his expenditure, they deprive him of thofe tools that are working the bufinefs of the ftate.A man paying, therefore, according to his ability, mull be underftood in a restrained fenfe The prepo(terou3nature of land-taxes is feen in this diftindion, that an idle worthlefs diffipator is taxed exafliy in the famedegree as his induftrious neighbour, who is converting a defert into a garden.
•j. Yet the nobility of Lyons and Artois, and the Tiers of Troyes, demand a general cadajlre of all France ,Cahier. p- 17.— Artois, p. 1 J . — Troyes . p. 7—The committee of impofition recommends one aifo, Rap-port, p. 8.—To make the cadajlre of Limofin coft 2,592,000 livres ( 113,3551. 15s.) and the whole king-dom would coll at the fame ra e, 82,944,000 liv. (3,628,8001.) requiring the employment of 3072 engi-neers during 18 years, EJJai d’un Nethode generate a etendre les connoijjunces des Voyageurs, par MonJ Meunier.
8 vo. tom i. p. 399 The King of Sardinia ’s cadajlre is faid to have coft 8 f. the arpent, Adminiflra-tion Prov. Le Trone. tom. ii. p. 236. The cahiers demand a cadajlre in the language of the a-conomifh, asif it were to be done as loon as imagined, and to coft only a trifle: and this operation, which would takeeighteen years to execute, is advifed by M. k Trone to be repeated every nine !
amounting