THE WEALTH OF NATIONS.

SOD

which he pays rent. For the proper cultivation of this landa certain quantity of stock is necessary; and by withdrawingany part of this necessary quantity, the farmer is not likely tobe more able to pay either the rent or the tax. In order topay the tax, it can never be his interest to diminish the quan-tity of his produce, nor consequently to supply the marketmore sparingly than before. The tax, therefore, will neverenable him to raise the price of his produce, so as to reimbursehimself by throwing the final payment upon the consumer.The farmer, however, must have his reasonable profit as wellas every other dealer, otherwise he must give up the trade.After the imposition of a tax of this kind, he can get this rea-sonable profit only by paying less rent to the landlord. Themore lie is obliged to pay in the way of tax, the less he canafford to pay in the way of rent. A tax of this kind imposedduring the currency of a lease may, no doubt, distress or ruinthe farmer. Upon the renewal of the lease it must alwaysfall upon the landlord.

In the countries where the personal taille takes place, thefarmer is commonly assessed in proportion to the stock whichhe appears to employ in cultivation. He is, upon this account,frequently afraid to have a good team of horses or oxen, butendeavours to cultivate with the meanest and most wretchedinstruments of husbandry that he can. Such is his distrust inthe justice of his assessors, that he counterfeits poverty, andwishes to appear scarce able to pay any thing for fear of beingobliged to pay too much. By this miserable policy he doesnot, perhaps, always consult his own interest in the mosteffectual manner; and he probably loses more by the diminu-tion of his produce than he saves by that of his tax. Though,in consequence of this wretched cultivation, the market is, nodoubt, somewhat worse supplied; yet the small rise of pricewhich this may occasion, as it is not likely even to indemnifythe farmer for the diminution of his produce, it is still lesslikely to enable him to pay more rent to the landlord. Thepublic, tlid farmer, the landlord, all sull’er more or less by thisdegraded cultivation. That the personal taille tends, in manydifferent ways, to discourage cultivation, and consequently todry up the principal source of the wealth of every great coun-try, I have already had occasion to observe in the third bookof this Inquiry.

What are called poll-taxes in the southern provinces ofNorth America , and in the West Indian islands, annual taxes

3 F