The Land Taxation and the Economists. 177 



encouraged to throw the chief burden on the landlords. In- 

 direct imposts, if we except the ad 'calorem duties, are more 

 or less certain ; but they are surely not equable, though they 

 may be made so by means of other imposts. They are col- 

 lected more often than not at an inconvenient time for the 

 producer and importer, and they take out of the people's 

 pockets, in proportion to what they contribute to the public 

 treasury, more than the direct system. Their greatest draw- 

 back, however, is their mischievous effects on the consumer, 

 which, however, might be minimised by levying imposts on 

 the manufactured in contradistinction to the raw material. 



As to the principle of taxing exports and imports, it has long 

 been held that any form of protective tariff ultimately results 

 in harm to both capital and labour. Imbued with the views of 

 Adam Smith on the relationship of rents to prices, economists 

 held that a free trade in corn did not even injure the farmers 

 beyond the expiration of existing leases, whereas it would 

 benefit the whole community, with the exception of the 

 landlord. Even when Ricardo's more correct reasoning had 

 altered this relationship of rents to prices, the same views 

 prevailed, though at the present day a reaction in favour of 

 protecting the interests of the farmer has set in. 



Though we have advocated the principles of Free Trade 

 throughout this work, we, and even its most ardent champions, 

 must be prepared to admit the possibility of exceptions to the 

 rule. A fiscal system founded at a period of our history, when 

 the national wealth was more or less entirely derived from 

 native soil, ought not to continue to bear mainly on agricul- 

 tural profits, now that the husbandman is exposed to the com- 

 petition of the foreign producer. The one alternative v/ould 

 be to remove some of the existing burdens on the land ; the 

 other and more feasible alternative would be to devise some 

 compensatory relief to the landlord and farmer in the shape of 

 Protection. 



But we must now retrace our steps, and examine the general 

 condition of the national finances at the end of the seventeenth 

 century. Never before had the revenues been so high nor taxa- 

 tion so excessive. Yet more was required. Seeing what was 



XL N 



