office, &c. into his hands, or engaging in mercantile projects. But it has always been found that the character of the trader and fovereign are inconfiftent. A ftate may derive part of its revenue from the intereft of money, as is the cafe with the Canton of Berne. The rent of public lands has been found a more fecure and permanent fource of revenue than either of the former but these would be better improved and yield a greater revenue, by being in the hands of private perfons. Since the modern art of war and other refinements have rendered government fo expensive, public ftock and lands have been found improper and infufficient fources of revenue, and taxes on the people have become neceffary, The fubjects of every ftate ought to contribute to the fupport of government in proportion to the revenue which they enjoy under the protection of the ftate. The tax to be paid. by each individual fhould be certain and not arbitrary. Every tax fhould be levied at the time and in the manner moft convenient to the contributor. And every tax fhould be fo contrived as to take and keep out of the pockets of the people as little as poffible above what is brought into the public treafury. All private revenue arifing from rent, profit, and wages, every tax must fall upon fome one of these feparately, or upon all of them indifferently. Taxes upon the rent of land may either be according to fome fixed canon, or variable, according to the variations in the real rent of the land. A land-tax on the former plan neceffarily becomes unequal. In Great Britain the rents of lands have univerfally rifen, and given all the proprietors of lands an advantage, though in very unequal degrees. A variable landtax has its inconveniences; particularly, it would, without great precaution, difcourage the improvement of lands. Taxes upon the produce of land are, in fact, taxes upon the rent. Tythes are a very unequal tax, and a great difcouragement to cultiva tion. A tax of this fort, paid in kind, would be liable to fuffer much from mifmanagement. A certain fum of money, or modus, in lieu of fuch taxes, or tythes, would be more uniform, and would not difcourage improvement. A tax upon the rent of houfes would fall partly upon the tenant and partly upon the owner of the ground. The proportion of the expence of houfe rent to the whole expence of living, is highest in the 'first ranks of life, and gradually diminishes: a tax upon houfe rents would therefore generally fall heaviest upon the rich. A tax upon ground rents would fall altogether upon its owner; and would be eafy and equitable, as these rents are in proportion to the populousness and wealth of any place. Window taxes are unequal, falling much heavier upon the poor than the rich. Profit, Profit, or the revenue arifing from ftock, may be divided into the part which pays the intereft, and the furplus. The latter is not taxable directly, for this being the natural compenfation to the employer, fuch a tax would oblige him either to raise the rate of profit, or fink that of intereft. The intereft of money is not a proper object of taxation, because the amount of a man's capital ftock is not eafily known, and because it is Jiable to be removed, and might be driven away by a vaxatious tax. The tax upon stock in England, though annexed to the land-tax, is much lighter; it is rated much below its real value. Taxes upon particular branches of trade are taxes upon ftock: as thofe upon pedlars, hackney-coaches, and ale-houses. A tax upon the profits of flock, in a particular branch of trade, lays a restraint upon the market: a tax upon the profits of stock in agriculture falls upon the landlord. All taxes upon the transference of property of every kind, fo far as they diminish the capital value of that property, tend to diminish the funds deftined for the maintenance of productive labour, and therefore are injudicious. Taxes upon labour, where the demand for it, and the price of provifions remain the fame, fall immediately upon the employer, and finally upon the landlord and the confumer. Thefe are extremely injurious to the public, and oppreffive to individuals. The emoluments of offices, being generally higher' than is neceffary, might properly be taxed, The taxes which are intended to fall indifferently on every different fpecies of revenue, are capitation taxes, and taxes upon confumable commodities. Capitation taxes, if it is attempted to proportion them to the revenue of each contributor, become altogether arbitrary: if they are proportioned by rank, they become unequal. As far as they are levied upon the lower ranks of people they are direct taxes upon labour: they are always burdenfome and unpopular. Confumable commodities are either neceffaries or luxurics. Neceffaries are thofe things which nature and the established rules of decency have rendered neceffary to the lowest clafs of the people. In England a linen fhirt and leather shoes are become neceffaries, A tax upon neceffaries is a tax upon the wages of labour; becaufe labourers must pay more for them. Taxes upon the luxuries of the poor act as fumptuary laws, difpofing them to refrain from or moderate the use of superfluities. Taxes upon neceffaries or labour fall doubly upon landlords, by reducing their rents and increafing their expences. In Great Britain the principal taxes upon the neceffaries of life are thofe upon falt, leather, foap, and candles. Coals, G4 though though a neceffary article, are taxed very highly when carried coaftwife, but pay no duty by land-carriage or inland navigation. Where they are naturally cheap, they are confumed duty free; where dear, loaded with a heavy duty. Confumable commodities may be taxed either by demanding an annual fum for ufing them from the confumer, or by levying a tax upon them while they are in the hands of the dealer: the first method fuits fuch goods as laft a confiderable time, the latter thofe of which the confumption is more immediate. The prohibition of, or high duties impofed upon, the importation of many foreign goods has annihilated or diminished the revenue from them, without being of real benefit to trade. Perhaps the duties of cuftoms might, without any loss to the revenue, and with much advantage to trade, be confined to a few articles only. The whole confumption of the inferior ranks of people being much greater in value as well as quantity, than that of the fuperior and middle ranks, those taxes which are laid upon the luxuries of the common people must be moft productive. Hence the great benefit of the taxes on the materials and manufacture of fermented liquors. And this tax might be rendered more equal, as well as profitable, by taking off the different duties upon beer and. ale, and tripling the malt-tax. In that rude ftate of fociety which precedes the extenfion of commerce, few articles of luxury are to be obtained, and those who poffefs a large revenue ufually spend the furplus in hofpitality and charity. In this ftate few perfons live beyond their income, and many hoard up treasures; among the reft, the fovereign. In a commercial country, both the people and fovereign finding new fources of expence, live up to and often beyond their income. The want of parfimony in a state in times of peace, impofes the neceffity of contracting debt in the time of war. In the immediate exigences of war, government can have no refource but in borrowing. The increase of wealth in a commercial country, and the fecurity of property in a free state, introduce an ability and willingness in the fubject to lend their money to government on extraordinary occafions. Public debts are contracted on what may be called perfonal credit, without affigning or mortgaging any particular fund for payment, or on affignments and mortgages. The unfunded debt of Great Britain is of the former kind, and confifts partly in a debt which bears, or is fuppofed to bear, no intereft, as debts for extraordinary fervices, extraordinaries of the army and navy, arrears of fubfidies, &c. and partly in a debt which bears intereft, refembling a private debt contracted on a promiffory note; note; of which kind are navy and exchequer bills. The Bank, by discounting these bills at their current value, and paying the intereft due upon them, facilitates their circulation. Mortgages or affignments are made for a fhort period of time only, or for perpetuity. In the one cafe the fund is fuppofed fufficient to pay both principal and intereft within the limited time; in the other it pays a perpetual annuity equivalent to the intereft only, government being at liberty at any time to redeem this annuity upon paying the principal: in the former method money is faid to be railed by anticipation: in the latter by funding. In Great Britain the annual land and malt taxes are regularly anticipated every year; the Bank of England advancing at intereft the fums for which thofe taxes. are granted, and receiving payment as their produce comes in. The first loans in the reigns of King William and QueenAnne were upon anticipation for a short term. The produce of the taxes destined to this purpose proving infufficient, deficiencies arofe, and it became neceffary to prolong the term of thofe taxes. This was done from time to time, and new taxes appointed to make good deficiencies, and to ferve as a fund for new loans. In 1711, feveral duties were made perpetual, as a fund for paying the intcreft of upwards of nine millions, the capital of the South Sea Company advanced to government; as fome other taxes had before been perpetuated to pay the intereft of money advanced by the Bank Company and the Eaft India Company. In 1715, the different taxes which had beenmortgaged for paying feveral annuities were accumulated into one common fund, called the Aggregate Fund. In 1717, feveral other taxes were rendered perpetual, and accumulated into another common fund called the General Fund. In confequence of thefe different acts the greater part of the taxes, which had before been anticipated only for a fhort term of years, were rendered perpetual as a fund for paying not the capital, but the intereft only of the money which had been borrowed upon them by different anticipations. During the reign of Queen Anne, the market rate of intereft finking from fix to five per cent. and this being fixed as the highest lawful intereft, the creditors of the public were foon after induced to accept of five per cent. intereft; which occafioned a faving of one-fixth of the greater part of the annuities paid out of the three great funds above mentioned. This faving left a confifiderable furplus in the produce of the taxes accumulated into thofe funds, and laid the foundation of the Sinking Fund. In 1727, the intereft of the greater part of the public debts was farther reduced to four per cent, and in 1753 and 1757 to three and a half, and three per cent, which reductions ftill farther augmented the Sinking Fund. During the reigns of William and Anne large fums were frequently borrowed upon annuities for terms of years, and for lives. On the fifth of January 1775, the remainder of the long annuities not fubfcribed into other flock, amounted only to 136,4531. 12 s. 8 d. Annuities for lives have occafionally been granted as an additional encouragement to fubfcribers or lenders to government, either upon feparate lives, or upon lots, of lives, called Tontine, from the first inventor of them. Sinking funds having generally arifen, not fo much from any furplus of taxes as from the reduction of intereft, must be infufficient for difcharging the debts even if rightly applied. In a time of peace, after the people have been burdened with many taxes to fupport the former war, which are perhaps barely fufficient to pay the interefts of the debts thus incurred, new taxes would be dangerous, and the eafieft expedient, in cafe of extraordinary expences, is to have recourfe to the Sinking Fund. Hence the ufual mifapplication of this fund. In Great Britain, from the time that we had first recourfe to the ruinous expedient of perpetual funding, the reduction of the public debt in time of peace, has never borne any proportion to its accumulation in time of war. The national debt commenced in 1688. In 1697 it amounted to upwards of 21 millions. In less than four years from that time five millions were paid off. In 1714 the debt was 53 millions; in 1722, 55 millions. From 1723 to 1739, during 17 years peace, it was only reduced to 46 millions. During the Spanish and French wars from 1739 to 1748, the debt increafed to 78 millions. In 1755, before the breaking out of the laft war, the funded debt was 72 millions. In 1764, the funded and unfunded debt amounted to 139 millions. In 1775, they amounted to 129 millions. Of the ten millions which have been paid, not five has been difcharged out of the favings of the ordinary revenue. It apears therefore altogether chimerical to expect that the public debt fhould ever be difcharged by any favings from the ordinary revenue as it ftands at prefent. The annual revenue of Great Britain in, time of peace amounts to more than ten millions; a fum fufficient, if unmortgaged, to carry on the moft vigorous war. The people therefore are as much incumbered, and their ability to accumulate as much impaired in time of peace, as they would have been in the most expenfive war, had the fyftem of funding never been adopted. This practice has gradually enfeebled every ftate which has adopted it. This is the cafe with Genoa and Venice, Spain, France, and the united Provinces. The raifing of the denomination of coin has been an ufual expedient for difguifing a real public bankruptcy under the pretence of payment: but this is a pitiful and extremely per nicious |