WEALTH OF NATIONS. 187 



to the rent ; and he shows clearly enough, that these, 

 though advanced by the farmer, are paid by the land- 

 lord. Tithe and other such burthens, falling under this 

 description, are unequal because in different lands and 

 different situations, the produce, and consequently the 

 tax, bears a different proportion to the rent. Taxes on 

 the rent of houses, he clearly shows, must fall indifferently 

 on all the sources of revenue, rent, profit, and wages, 

 the house itself yielding no revenue, and by its use and 

 wear resembling a consumable commodity. As nothing 

 is a better test of a person's whole expenses than the 

 house he lives in, a house tax is recommended by the 

 first maxim, and it suits well enough with the other three. 

 The ground-rent and not the rent payable for profits of 

 building should be the subject of this tax, because that 

 would not raise house-rent, and it would fall heaviest on 

 the capital and larger houses, which can best afford to 

 pay it. As revenue from houses is received without 

 exerting any labour, and with little care either of superin- 

 tendence or collection, it is a better subject of taxation 

 than land-rents. 



2. A tax upon the profits of stock must either fall 

 upon the part of the profits which goes to pay the interest 

 of the stock, or the price paid for the stock, or it must 

 fall on the surplus profit over what the interest amounts 

 to. The former revenue belongs to the owner of the stock, 

 the latter being a compensation, generally a very mode- 

 rate compensation, for the trouble and risk of employ- 

 ing the stock. He cannot pay this himself, for if he did 

 he must run the risk and take the trouble for inadequate 

 reward. Therefore he lays it upon the price of his goods 

 if a trader, or deducts it from the rent if a farmer, or he 



