I-8o4* ''^^^ ^^^^ Nature and Origin cf Fuhlic Wealth. ''i^fil 



Thus it diftinftly appears, from the afTumptions of Mr James Do- 

 naldfon, that tlic farmers of the Carfe of Gowrit- , collectively, iiiuft in- 

 cur an annual average lofs of 45,6071. 6s. 4cl. Or, taking them in- 

 dividually, that each farmer of 200 acres of that fertile diftrift, paying 

 350I. a year of rent, mull fuffer an average yearly lofs of about 304JL 

 Hence, this fyftem, were it poffible, muft be ir.fniitely vvorCe than that 

 of the Frencly Metayers ; who, having nothing originally to lofe, caa 

 never become worfe by the word of years ; whereas the Car!"e farmerg 

 of refpedable capital muft, in a very few years of average produce, be 

 reduced from competent affluence to total bankruptcy and beggarly 

 poverty* 



Nothing would be eafier than to conftruft a new fet of tabular cal- 

 culations for the Carfe of Gowrie, upon equally vague and hypothe- 

 tical data, to prove that the farmers of that diftridl gain as much mo- 

 ney annually, or even five times more, if you pleafe, as tliey evidently 

 lofe upon the aflumptions of Mr James Donaldfon. But that is neither 

 my obje6l nor inclination : I am perfedlly fatisfied the Carfe farmers 

 poffefs too much good fenfe, to employ their talents and capitals in 

 ruinous fpeculations, though I do not pretend to calculate what are 

 their aftual gains. Some elHmate muft be formed by every man who 

 means to take a farm ; but fuch an eftimate muft be dire<R:ed by local in- 

 veftigation of numerous circumftances. One obvious defedl appears on 

 the eftimate by Mr- James Donaldfon of the produce of the Carfe of 

 Gowrie: Neither ■ beef, mutton, veal, lamb, pork, wool, butter or 

 chcefe, enter into his average produce of one of the moft fertile dif- 

 tritls in our ifland. 



I have fulfilled my views, of proving, in this inftance at leaft, the 

 fallacy of fuch calculations. The failure of the gigantic Income Tax, 

 which is now revived with refrejked ftrength under the name of Property 

 Tax, and the produce of whicli fell nearly a half fhort of its eftimate 

 by the great financier Pitt, is an inftance, on a grander fcale, of the 

 abfolute uncertainty of all fuch fpeculations. It is well for the farmers 

 and proprietors in Gowrie, that their rents and profits are fixed on firmer 

 foundations than the eftimates of Mr James Donaldfon ; and for our 

 country, that its revenue and defence did not neceffarily depend upon 

 the accuracy with which the produ^tivenefs of the Income Tax was 



-eftimate d by Mr Pitt. 



DOMIKE. 



h a 3 BRANCH 



