An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations - Adam Smith (ebooks children's books free .TXT) 📗
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found, I believe, are those in which the trade in that article is
subject to the fewest restraints of this kind. The extensive
market which such provinces enjoy, encourages good management
both in the cultivation of their vineyards, and in the subsequent
preparation of their wines.
Such various and complicated revenue laws are not peculiar to
France. The little duchy of Milan is divided into six provinces,
in each of which there is a different system of taxation, with
regard to several different sorts of consumable goods. The still
smaller territories of the duke of Parma are divided into three
or four, each of which has, in the same manner, a system of its
own. Under such absurd management, nothing but the great
fertility of the soil, and happiness of the climate, could
preserve such countries from soon relapsing into the lowest state
of poverty and barbarism.
Taxes upon consumable commodities may either he levied by an
administration, of which the officers are appointed by
govermnent, and are immediately accountable to government, of
which the revenue must, in this case, vary from year to year,
according to the occasional variations in the produce of the tax
; or they may be let in farm for a rent certain, the farmer being
allowed to appoint his own officers, who, though obliged to levy
the tax in the manner directed by the law, are under his
immediate inspection, and are immediately accountable to him. The
best and most frugal way of levying a tax can never be by farm.
Over and above what is necessary for paying the stipulated rent,
the salaries of the officers, and the whole expense of
administration, the farmer must always draw from the produce of
the tax a certain profit, proportioned at least to the advance
which he makes, to the risk which he runs, to the trouble which
he is at, and to the knowledge and skill which it requires to
manage so very complicated a concern. Government, by establishing
an administration under their own immediate inspection, of the
same kind with that which the farmer establishes, might at least
save this profit, which is almost always exorbitant. To farm any
considerable branch of the public revenue requires either a great
capital, or a great credit; circumstances which would alone
restrain the competition for such an undertaking to a very small
number of people. Of the few who have this capital or credit, a
still smaller number have the necessary knowledge or experience;
another circumstance which restrains the competition still
further. The very few who are in condition to become competitors,
find it more for their interest to combine together ; to become
copartners, instead of competitors; and, when the farm is set up
to auction, to offer no rent but what is much below the real
value. In countries where the public revenues are in farm, the
farmers are generally the most opulent people. Their wealth would
alone excite the public indignation; and the vanity which almost
always accompanies such upstart fortunes, the foolish ostentation
with which they commonly display that wealth, excite that
indignation still more.
The farmers of the public revenue never find the laws too severe,
which punish any attempt to evade the payment of a tax. They have
no bowels for the contributors, who are not their subjects, and
whose universal bankruptcy, if it should happen the day after the
farm is expired, would not much affect their interest. In the
greatest exigencies of the state, when the anxiety of the
sovereign for the exact payment of his revenue is necessarily the
greatest, they seldom fail to complain, that without laws more
rigorous than those which actually took place, it will be
impossible for them to pay even the usual rent. In those moments
of public distress, their commands cannot he disputed. The
revenue laws, therefore, become gradually more and more severe.
The most sanguinary are always to be found in countries where the
greater part of the public revenue is in farm ; the mildest, in
countries where it is levied under the immediate inspection of
the sovereign. Even a bad sovereign feels more compassion for his
people than can ever be expected from the farmers of his revenue.
He knows that the permanent grandeur of his family depends upon
the prosperity of his people, and he will never knowingly ruin
that prosperity for the sake of any momentary interest of his
own. It is otherwise with the farmers of his revenue, whose
grandeur may frequently be the effect of the ruin, and not of the
prosperity, of his people.
A tax is sometimes not only farmed for a certain rent, but the
farmer has, besides, the monopoly of the commodity taxed. In
France, the duties upon tobacco and salt are levied in this
manner. In such cases, the farmer, instead of one, levies two
exorbitant profits upon the people; the profit of the farmer, and
the still more exorbitant one of the monopolist. Tobacco being a
luxury, every man is allowed to buy or not to buy as he chuses ;
but salt being a necessary, every man is obliged to buy of the
farmer a certain quantity of it ; because, if he did not buy this
quantity of the farmer, he would, it is presumed, buy it of some
smuggler. The taxes upon both commodities are exorbitant. The
temptation to smuggle, consequently, is to many people
irresistible; while, at the same time, the rigour of the law, and
the vigilance of the farmer’s officers, render the yielding to
the temptation almost certainly ruinous. The smuggling of
salt and tobacco sends every year several hundred people to the
galleys, besides a very considerable number whom it sends to the
gibbet. Those taxes, levied in this manner, yield a very
considerable revenue to government. In 1767, the farm of tobacco
was let for twenty-two millions five hundred and forty-one
thousand two hundred and seventy-eight livres a-year; that of
salt for thirtysix millions four hundred and ninety-two thousand
four hundred and four livres. The farm, in both cases, was to
commence in 1768, and to last for six years. Those who consider
the blood of the people as nothing, in comparison with the
revenue of the prince, may, perhaps, approve of this method of
levying taxes. Similar taxes and monopolies of salt and
tobacco have been established in many other countries,
particularly in the Austrian and Prussian dominions, and in the
greater part of the states of Italy.
In France, the greater part of the actual revenue of the crown is
derived from eight different sources; the taille, the capitation,
the two vingtiemes, the gabelles, the aides, the traites, the
domaine, and the farm of tobacco. The live last are, in the
greater part of the provinces, under farm. The three first are
everywhere levied by an administration, under the immediate
inspection and direction of government ; and it is universally
acknowledged, that in proportion to what they take out of the
pockets of the people, they bring more into the treasury of the
prince than the other five, of which the administration is much
more wasteful and expensive.
The finances of France seem, in their present state, to admit of
three very obvious reformations. First, by abolishing the
taille and the capitation, and by increasing the number of the
vingtiemes, so as to produce an additional revenue equal to the
amount of those other taxes, the revenue of the crown might be
preserved; the expense of collection might be much diminished ;
the vexation of the inferior ranks of people, which the taille
and capitation occassion, might be entirely prevented; and the
superior ranks might not be more burdened than the greater part
of them are at present. The vingtieme, I have already observed,
is a tax very nearly of the same kind with what is called the
land tax of England. The burden of the taille, it is
acknowledged, falls finally upon the proprietors of land ; and as
the greater part of the capitation is assessed upon those who are
subject to the taille, at so much a-pound of that other tax, the
final payment of the greater part of it must likewise fall upon
the same order of people. Though the number of the vingtiemes,
therefore, was increased, so as to produce an additional revenue
equal to the amount of both those taxes, the superior ranks of
people might not be more burdened than they are at present; many
individuals, no doubt, would, on account of the great
inequalities with which the taille is commonly assessed upon the
estates and tenants of different individuals. The interest and
opposition of such favoured subjects, are the obstacles most
likely to prevent this, or any other reformation of the same
kind. Secondly, by rendering the gabelle, the aides, the traites,
the taxes upon tobacco, all the different customs and excises,
uniform in all the different parts of the kingdom, those taxes
might be levied at much less expense, and the interior commerce
of the kingdom might be rendered as free as that of England.
Thirdly, and lastly, by subjecting all those taxes to an
administration under the immediate inspection and direction or
government, the exorbitant profits of the farmers-general might
be added to the revenue of the state. The opposition arising from
the private inte rest of individuals, is likely to be as
effectual for preventing the two last as the first-mentioned
scheme of reformation.
The French system of taxation seems, in every respect, inferior
to the British. In Great Britain, ten millions sterling are
annually levied upon less than eight millions of people, without
its being possible to say that any particular order is oppressed.
From the Collections of the Abb� Expilly, and the observations of
the author of the Essay upon the Legislation and Commerce of
Corn, it appears probable that France, including the provinces of
Lorraine and Bar, contains about twenty-three or twentyfour
millions of people; three times the number, perhaps, contained in
Great Britain. The soil and climate of France are better than
those of Great Britain. The country has been much longer in a
state of improvement and cultivation, and is, upon that account,
better stocked with all those things which it requires a long
time to raise up and accumulate ; such as great towns, and
convenient and well-built houses, both in town and country. With
these advantages, it might be expected, that in France a revenue
of thirty millions might be levied for the support of the state,
with as little inconvenience as a revenue of ten millions is in
Great Britain. In 1765 and 1766, the whole revenue paid into the
treasury of France, according to the best, though, I acknowledge,
very imperfect accounts which I could get of it, usually run
between 308 and 325 millions of livres ; that is, it did not
amount to fifteen millions sterling; not the half of what might
have been expected, had the people contributed in the same
proportion to their numbers as the people of Great Britain. The
people of France, however, it is generally acknowledged, are much
more oppressed by taxes than the people of Great Britain. France,
however, is certainly the great empire in Europe, which, after
that of Great Britain, enjoys the mildest and most indulgent
government.
In Holland, the heavy taxes upon the necessaries of life have
ruined, it is said, their principal manufacturers, and are likely
to discourage, gradually, even their fisheries and their trade in
ship-building. The taxes upon the necessaries of life are
inconsiderable in Great Britain, and no manufacture has hitherto
been ruined by them. The British taxes which bear hardest on
manufactures, are some duties upon the importation of raw
materials, particularly upon that of raw silk. The revenue of the
States-General and of the different cities, however, is said
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