33 



Wurtemberg, and Hesse every year for purposes of taxation. Some- 

 thing in this way is also done in Saxony, HoHand, and Ireland. Per- 

 haps no European state neglects the matter entirely. Live stock is 

 generally enumerated, and, under land-tax laws, inquiries are periodically 

 made in regard to the value of land, its proprietary subdivisions, occu- 

 pation by specific crops, number and calling of the population, &g. 



These eftbrts, however, have not given results entirely satisfactory. 

 Some small states, such as Servia, Eoumania, and Greece, have been 

 able to establish ui)on their limited areas comparatively effective sys- . 

 tems of field-statistics ; while Germany and England find it difficult to 

 procure a system that will embrace all the i^oints of their immense pro- 

 duction. The great difliculty is found in the variety of laws, schedules, 

 &c., in force in different states, furnishing but few points for interna- 

 tional comparison. The necessity for such comparison is more perceptible 

 and pressing than in former years, when international trade in agricul- 

 tural staples was mostly by sea. Its grand propelling forces were wars, 

 famines, extraordinary high prices, and other causes, creating a sudden 

 and great deficiency in food and other necessaries of life in some localities. 

 These created a great but ephemeral demand, causing rapid but convul- 

 sive movements of produce. These exceptional and temporary causes 

 of enlarged trade have been superseded in modern civilization by a more 

 differential and permanent relation of supply and demand. The facilities 

 both of intelligence and transportation of the present day have greatly 

 narrowed the scope of speculation of middle-men by bringing all parts 

 of the productive surface of the earth in close competition. No artificial 

 elevation of prices can long stand against the immense amount of pro- 

 duce that would be attracted from all quarters. 



But the soil itself, as well as its products, has, through changes in 

 European landed systems, become a prominent article of commerce. 

 Entailed settlements have been largely superseded. The land, not de- 

 scending from father to son, as formerly, and not being valued simijly 

 as a means of personal subsistence, has assumed a merchantable char- 

 acter as real estate, affording a scope of investment of capital and skill 

 in production. This facility of transfer renders the soil available to the 

 varied demands of production, and consequently gives rise to a more 

 general system of culture, which has greatly enhanced its productive 

 power. 



A general complaint of unequal taxation is rife through European 

 countries. It is believed that a better understanding of the character 

 and relations of the soil and its products to other great interests cannot 

 fail to point out methods of removing this evil as well as the want of 

 capital, excessive cost of agricultural machinery, and modern processes of 

 culture, &c., which are severely felt in a large portion of the productive 

 area of civilization. No government will refuse to adjust its system of 

 taxation so as to remove inequalities clearly pointed out. Errors of 

 judgment in regard to the expenses current or to risk of capital, 

 cause an excessive rental of land. A want of confidence causes the 

 withholding of loaned capital from the cultivator. These difficulties 

 spring from known or unknown anomalies in agricultural i)roduc- 

 tion which a well-digested method of statistical inquiry would detect 

 and of which it would indicate a remedy. Labor-strikes' might also be 

 removed by careful inquiry into the condition of the laboring i)opula- 

 tion. The accumulation and diff'usion of information in regard to 

 markets among both producers and middle men would largely remove 

 that uncertainty, the cost of which ultimately falls, without recourse, 

 upon the producer. 

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