THE WEALTH OF NATIONS.

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assessed, hough not with great rigour, yet with much moreexactness tnan that part of the land-tax of England which isimposed upon the same fund. It, in many cases, falls alto-gether upon the interest of money. Money is frequently sunkin France upon what are called Contracts for the constitutionof a rent; that is, perpetual annuities redeemable at any timeby the debtor upon payment of the sum originally advanced,but of which this redemption is not exigible by the creditorexcept in particular cases. The Vingtieme seems not to haveraised the rate of those annuities, though it is exactly leviedupon them all.

APPENDIX TO ARTICLES I. AND II.

Taxes upon the capital Value of Land, Houses, and Stock.

While property remains in the possession of the same per-son, whatever permanent taxes may have been imposed uponit, they have never been intended to diminish, or take awayany part of its capital value, but only some part of the revenuearising from it. But when property changes hands, when itis transmitted either from the dead to the living, or from theliving to the living, such taxes have frequently been imposedupon it as necessarily take away some part of its capital value.

The transference of all sorts of property from the dead tothe living, and that of immoveable property, of lands andhouses, from the liviug to the living, are transactions whichare in their nature either public and notorious, or such as can-not be long concealed. Such transactions, therefore, may betaxed directly. The transference of stock or moveable pro-perty, from the living to the living, by the lending of money,is frequently a secret transaction, and may always be madeso. It cannot easily, therefore, be taxed directly. It has beentaxed indirectly in two dilferent ways; first, by requiring thatthe deed, containing the obligation to repay, should be writ-ten upon paper or parchment which had paid a certain stampduty, otherwise not to be valid; secondly, by requiring, underthe like penalty of invalidity, that it should be recorded eitherin a public or secret register, and by imposing certain dutiesupon such registration. Stamp duties and duties of regis-tration have frequently been imposed likewise upon the deedstransferring property of all kinds from the dead to the livingand upon those transferring immoveable property from theliving to the living, transactions which might easily have beentaxed directly.

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