206 PEOTECTION TAXES ON FEEE TRADE PRICES 



authority, his historical retrospect is only an historical 

 squint if it fails to notice the two most prominent features 

 of early local taxation — first, that, as regards rates gene- 

 rally, agricultural land was heavily burdened because it 

 enjoyed, so to speak, a drawback in protective duties ; 

 secondly, that, as regards poor rates in particular, agricul- 

 tural land was heavily burdened because, prior to 1834, the 

 administration of the Poor Law taxed the community to 

 pay the farmer's labour bill. The two reasons for the 

 burden are now gone, but not the load ; rather it is, in the 

 past twenty years, enormously increased. The climax of 

 injustice has been reached within the last ten years, when 

 distress has increased rates by more than a third. Agri- 

 cultural depression raises the value of realised personalty, 

 because it cheapens the cost of food, but it proportionately 

 lowers the value of agricultural land. The property which 

 profits by depression escapes scot free from the burden of 

 local taxation, which falls more heavily upon agricultural 

 land as its value declines. 



It would not suffice to show, even if it were possible, 

 that the burden of local taxation is the same in 1888 as in 

 1841.^ The following comparison between the figures of 

 the four old rates in 1841 and 1885 shows that it is 

 higher by 3^ millions. In both cases the Metropolitan ex- 

 penditure under the heads of Poor Law Authorities and 

 Churchwardens (church rates) is included : — 



' This date is chosen in preference to 1827, because the new Poor 

 Law had then come into operation, while Protection still continued. In 

 other words, that year is the simplest of the two detailed returns in the 

 period of Protection, because one great factor which previously swelled 

 rates in tlie interests of agricultural land is eliminated. 



