804

THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF

posed by the law. All merchants and even all inn-keepersare trusted with keeping themselves the account of the goodswhich they sell either within or without the territory. At theend of every three months they send this account to the trea-surer, with the amount of the tax computed at the bottom of it.It is not suspected that the revenue suffers by this confidence.*

To oblige every citizen to declare publicly upon oath theamount of his fortune must not, it seems, in those Swiss can-tons, be reckoned a hardship. At Hamburgh it Avould bereckoned the greatest. Merchants engaged in the hazardousprojects of trade, all tremble at the thoughts of being ob-liged at all times to expose the real state of their circum-stances. The ruin of their credit and the miscarriage of theirprojects, they foresee, would too often be the consequence.A sober and parsimonious people, who are strangers to allsuch projects, do not feel that they have occasion for anysuch concealment.

In Holland, soon after the exaltation of the late prince ofOrange to the stadtholdership, a tax of two per cent, or thefiftieth penny, as it was called, was imposed upon the wholesubstance of every citizen. Every citizen assessed himselfand paid his tax in the same manner as at Hamburgh; andit was in general supposed to have been paid with great fide-lity. The people had at that time the greatest affection fortheir new government, which they had just established by ageneral insurrection. The tax was to be paid but once; inorder to relieve the state in a particular exigency. It was, in-indeed, too heavy to be permanent. In a country where themarket rate of interest seldom exceeds three per cent., a taxof two per cent, amounts to thirteen shillings and four-pencein the pound upon the highest neat revenue which is com-monly drawn from stock. It is a tax which very few peoplecould pay withoutencroachingmore or less upontheir capitals.In a particular exigency the people may, from great publiczeal, make a great effort, and give up even a part of their ca-pital, in order to relieve the state. But it is impossible thatthey should continue to do so for any considerable time; andif they did, the tax would soon ruin them so completely as torender them altogether incapable of supporting the state.

The tax upon stock imposed by the land-tax bill in Eng-land, though it is proportioned to the capital, is not intendedto diminish or take away any part of that capital. It is meant

* Memqires couctinmt les DroiW, tome i- p* 163* 166* 171.