TIIK WEALTH Ol’ NATIONS.

790

the outside, and, in all cases, without entering every roomin the house. The visit of the tax-gatherer, therefore, wasless offensive in this tax than in the hearth-money.

This tax was afterward repealed, and in the room of itwas established the window-tax, which has undergone twoseveral alterations and augmentations. The window-tax, asit stands at present (January, 1775), over and above theduty of three shillings upon every house in England, and ofone shilling upon every house in Scotland , lays a duty uponevery window, which in England augments gradually fromtwo-pence, the lowest rate upon houses with not more thanseven windows, to two shillings, the highest rate upon houseswith twenty-five windows and upwards.

The principal objection to all such taxes is their inequality,an inequality of the worst kind, as they must frequently fallmuch heavier upon the poor than upon the rich. A houseof ten pounds rent in a country town may sometimes havemore windows than a house of live hundred pounds rent inLondon ; and though the inhabitant of the former is likely tobe a much poorer man than that of the latter, yet so far as hiscontribution is regulated by the window-tax, he must con-tribute more to the support of the state. Such taxes are,therefore, directly contrary to the first of the four maximsabove-mentioned. They do not seem to offend much againstany of the other three.

The natural tendency of the window-tax, and of all othertaxes upon houses, is to lower rents. The more a man payslor the tax, the less, it is evident, he can afford to pay for therent. Since the imposition of the window-tax, however, therents of houses have upon the whole risen, more or less, inalmost every town and village of Great Britain, with whichI am acquainted. Such has been almost everywhere theincrease of the demand for houses, that it has raised the rentsmore than the window-tax could sink them; one of the manyproofs of the great prosperity of the country, and of the in-creasing revenue of its inhabitants. Had it not been for thetax, rents would probably have risen still higher.

ARTICLE II.

Taxes upon Projit , or upon the Revenue arising from Stock

The revenue or profit arising from stock naturally dividesitself into two parts; that which pays the interest, andwhich belongs to the owner of the stock ; and that surplus