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                     different Species of Revenue 

     The taxes which; it is intended; should fall indifferently

upon every different species of revenue; are capitation taxes;

and taxes upon consumable commodities。 These must be paid

indifferently from whatever revenue the contributors may possess;

from the rent of their land; from the profits of their stock; or

from the wages of their labour。 

                         Capitation Taxes 

     Capitation taxes; if it is attempted to proportion them to

the fortune or revenue of each contributor; become altogether

arbitrary。 The state of a man's fortune varies from day to day;

and without an inquisition more intolerable than any tax; and

renewed at least once every year; can only be guessed at。 His

assessment; therefore; must in most cases depend upon the good or

bad humour of his assessors; and must; therefore; be altogether

arbitrary and uncertain。

     Capitation taxes; if they are proportioned not to the

supposed fortune; but to the rank of each contributor; become

altogether unequal; the degrees of fortune being frequently

unequal in the same degree of rank。

     Such taxes; therefore; if it is attempted to render them

equal; become altogether arbitrary and uncertain; and if it is

attempted to render them certain and not arbitrary; become

altogether unequal。 Let the tax be light or heavy; uncertainty is

always a great grievance。 In a light tax a considerable degree of

inequality may be supported; in a heavy one it is altogether

intolerable。

     In the different poll…taxes which took place in England

during the reign of William III the contributors were; the

greater part of them; assessed according to the degree of their

rank; as dukes; marquisses; earls; viscounts; barons; esquires;

gentlemen; the eldest and youngest sons of peers; etc。 All

shopkeepers and tradesmen worth more than three hundred pounds;

that is; the better sort of them; were subject to the same

assessment; how great soever might be the difference in their

fortunes。 Their rank was more considered than their fortune。

Several of those who in the first poll…tax were rated according

to their supposed fortune were afterwards rated according to

their rank。 Serjeants; attorneys; and proctors at law; who in the

first poll…tax were assessed at three shillings in the pound of

their supposed income; were afterwards assessed as gentlemen。 In

the assessment of a tax which was not very heavy; a considerable

degree of inequality had been found less insupportable than any

degree of uncertainty。

     In the capitation which has been levied in France without

any interruption since the beginning of the present century; the

highest orders of people are rated according to their rank by an

invariable tariff; the lower orders of people; according to what

is supposed to be their fortune; by an assessment which varies

from year to year。 The officers of the king's court; the judges

and other officers in the superior courts of justice; the

officers of the troops; etc。; are assessed in the first manner。

The inferior ranks of people in the provinces are assessed in the

second。 In France the great easily submit to a considerable

degree of inequality in a tax which; so far as it affects them;

is not a very heavy one; but could not brook the arbitrary

assessment of an intendant。 The inferior ranks of people must; in

that country; suffer patiently the usage which their superiors

think proper to give them。

     In England the different poll…taxes never produced the sum

which had been expected from them; or which; it was supposed;

they might have produced; had they been exactly levied。 In France

the capitation always produces the sum expected from it。 The mild

government of England; when it assessed the different ranks of

people to the poll…tax; contented itself with what that

assessment happened to produce; and required no compensation for

the loss which the state might sustain either by those who could

not pay; or by those who would not pay (for there were many

such); and who; by the indulgent execution of the law; were not

forced to pay。 The more severe government of France assesses upon

each generality a certain sum; which the intendant must find as

he can。 If any province complains of being assessed too high; it

may; in the assessment of next year; obtain an abatement

proportioned to the overcharge of the year before。 But it must

pay in the meantime。 The intendant; in order to be sure of

finding the sum assessed upon his generality; was empowered to

assess it in a larger sum that the failure or inability of some

of the contributors might be compensated by the overcharge of the

rest; and till 1765 the fixation of this surplus assessment was

left altogether to his discretion。 In that year; indeed; the

council assumed this power to itself。 In the capitation of the

provinces; it is observed by the perfectly well…informed author

of the Memoires upon the impositions in France; the proportion

which falls upon the nobility; and upon those whose privileges

exempt them from the taille; is the least considerable。 The

largest falls upon those subject to the taille; who are assessed

to the capitation at so much a pound of what they pay to that

other tax。

     Capitation taxes; so far as they are levied upon the lower

ranks of people; are direct taxes upon the wages of labour; and

are attended with all the inconveniences of such taxes。

     Capitation taxes are levied at little expense; and; where

they are rigorously exacted; afford a very sure revenue to the

state。 It is upon this account that in countries where the ease;

comfort; and security of the inferior ranks of people are little

attended to; capitation taxes are very common。 It is in general;

however; but a small part of the public revenue which; in a great

empire; has ever been drawn from such taxes; and the greatest sum

which they have ever afforded might always have been found in

some other way much more convenient to the people。 

              Taxes upon Consumable Commodities 

     The impossibility of taxing the people; in proportion to

their revenue; by any capitation; seems to have given occasion to

the invention of taxes upon consumable commodities。 The state;

not knowing how to tax; directly and proportionably; the revenue

of its subjects; endeavours to tax it indirectly by taxing their

expense; which; it is supposed; will in most cases be nearly in

proportion to their revenue。 Their expense is taxed by taxing the

consumable commodities upon which it is laid out。

     Consumable commodities are either necessaries or luxuries。

     By necessaries I understand not only the commodities which

are indispensably necessary for the support of life; but whatever

the custom of the country renders it indecent for creditable

people; even of the lowest order; to be without。 A linen shirt;

for example; is; strictly speaking; not a necessary of life。 The

Greeks and Romans lived; I suppose; very comfortably though they

had no linen。 But in the present times; through the greater part

of Europe; a creditable day…labourer would be ashamed to appear

in public without a linen shirt; the want of which would be

supposed to denote that disgraceful degree of poverty which; it

is presumed; nobody can well fall into without extreme bad

conduct。 Custom; in the same manner; has rendered leather shoes a

necessary of life in England。 The poorest creditable person of

either sex would be ashamed to appear in public without them。 In

Scotland; custom has rendered them a necessary of life to the

lowest order of men; but not to the same order of women; who may;

without any discredit; walk about barefooted。 In France they are

necessaries neither to men nor to women; the lowest rank of both

sexes appearing there publicly; without any discredit; sometimes

in wooden shoes; and sometimes barefooted。 Under necessaries;

therefore; I comprehend not only those things which nature; but

those things which the established rules of decency have rendered

necessary to the lowest rank of people。 All other things I call

luxuries; without meaning by this appellation to throw the

smallest degree of reproach upon the temperate use of them。 Beer

and ale; for example; in Great Britain; and wine; even in the

wine countries; I call luxuries。 A man of any rank may; without

any reproach; abstain totally from tasting such liquors。 Nature

does not render them necessary for the support of life; and

custom nowhere renders it indecent to live without them。

     As the wages of labour are everywhere regulated; partly by

the demand for it; and partly by the average price of the

necessary articles of subsistence; whatever raises this average

price must necessarily raise those wages so that the labourer may

still be able to purchase that quantity of those necessary

articles which the state of the demand for labour; whether

increasing

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