THK LAND SYSTEM OF FRANCE 423 



and poorest class of the French peasantry. Imagine the English 

 agricultural labourers great buyers of land, and at the same time 

 lending no small sums to the State ! One ought, too, to bear in 

 mind, at the same time, the different histories of the two coun- 

 tries, and the condition in which the tyranny, misgovernment, 

 and wars of preceding centuries had left the rural population of 

 France half a century ago, not to speak of later political disasters. 

 Far from objecting to the subdivision of land which has resulted 

 from the legal facilities for its transfer and mortgage, the highest 

 French authorities are urgent for the removal of the obstacles 



d by the high duties on both sales and successions. "In- 

 stead of placing obstacles in the way of changes of ownership 

 (Mi/to f/'tws 1 ), the true policy would be to encourage them. In addi- 

 tion to the direct taxation on land (I'impot fonder], landed property 

 is subject to the much heavier burden on changes of ownership. 

 The value of immovable property annually sold may be estimated 

 at 80,000,000 ; that which changes hands by succession at 



)OO,ooo ; the duties charged upon both amounting to 

 ,8,000,000. Such taxation is contrary to every principle, falling 

 as it does on capital and not on revenue." 2 



\Vc are not here concerned with the policy of duties on SIK 

 sion ; but there is one incontrovertible injustice in their incidence 

 in France which deserves notice namely, that the successor 



duty on the entire value of the property, without any deduc- 



for encumbrances, so that it sometimes happens that he 

 actually pays more than the full value of his inheritance. This 



:rous system of valuation offers, of course, a great obstacle 



-in# capital for the improvement of land, while it adds not 

 a little to the encumbrances already upon it the sort of en- 

 cumbrances added (sums borrowed to liquidate the duties) beini; 



over entirely unproductive to the own 



Th< . then, two causes <,f tin- subdivision of land in the 



structure of French law the 1. xl the l.iw of 



succession. Hut the fact that the subdivision promoted by one 



1 The term " mutations " is applied to all changes of ownership, whether by 



..ise or inli 

 * M. de Lavergne, Economic ruralc de la France. 



