The Land Taxation and the Economists. 165 



evidence, and we must therefore look elsewliere for informa- 

 tion. The importance of ascertaining the exact origin of the 

 modern form of this impost will be recognised when we 

 remind the reader that, outside the circles connected with the 

 soil, there is a strong feeling that the landed proprietor holds 

 his title on the understanding that he should support and 

 maintain our national defences, and that this charge under 

 the land tax most inadequately represents the extent of his 

 present liability. Let us, however, make it quite clear that 

 land taxation was no part of the original Gothic constitution ; 

 but that the king's court was supported by the rents of his 

 demesne lands and the fruits and incidents of the feudal 

 tenures. Moreover, his subjects were very impatient of any 

 approaches to a land tax, until they were positively assured 

 by statute or deed,^ that the imposition was not only of a 

 temporary, but of a voluntary nature. When, however, some 

 form of property tax was recognised to be a permanent 

 necessity, Parliament, not the king, was alone allowed to 

 impose it.^ It is no doubt true that the first few aids or 

 subsidies were derived from military tenures only, but then 

 came others, levied under such names as hidage or carucage, 

 which were imposed on other forms of property.^ From the 

 date of the first subsidy, however, we have a recognition 

 by the community that the military tenures were incapable 

 of meeting the increased and increasing expenses of the 

 War Office ; and then from the date of the later forms of 

 subsidy, that the entire national rental could not, even if it 

 ought to, sustain them, unless assisted by personalty. But 

 though it was not originally intended that the land should 

 bear the full brunt of the various subsidies, in course of time 

 this came to pass, as we shall now shortly see. 



In the time of Charles I., that portion of the aid which was 

 derived from landed property, should have yielded a million 

 and a half, but it was arranged in such a manner that it did 



' Compare 25 Ed. I. c. 5 and some of the old Scotch, deeds. Anderson's 

 Appendix, No. 21. 

 * 34 Ed. I. c. 1. 

 ^ Dalrymple's Essays, p, 54. 



