The Land Taxation and the Economists. 163 



his neighbours according to what they judged him worth. ^ 

 Now although this writer's intentions were sound and equitable, 

 he had in the instance of Holland selected an unfortunate model 

 for the State's future fiscal schemes ; for that country eclipsed 

 most others in the high rate of its land tax ; and the chief 

 reason for all this outcry was undoubtedly^ this particular 

 impost, which on an income of ;£20,000 in rents represented, or 

 was intended to represent, the enormous charge of £4,000. 

 It was, in fact, the principal burden on the land, and when 

 added to the tithe and poor rate (two items not taken into 

 account in the above table), deprived the soil of a large 

 proportion of the capital which otherwise would have been 

 available for its improvement. Landlords were therefore 

 naturally disgusted with all three of these charges on their 

 property, but with the first named, as we shall now show, they 

 had still further reasons for being so.^ 



So much obscurity surrounds its origin, so many errors 

 have crept therefrom into England's history, and upon such 

 errors so many proposals unjust to the landed interest have 

 been based, that we must ask the reader's patience while 

 we thoroughly examine its details. 



It has been suggested that this land tax of four shillings in 

 the pound was devised as a remedy for an act of " gross legis- 

 lative iniquity," perpetrated " by Stuart statesmen when they 

 invented the excise duties on the people as substitutes for 

 their own rents previously paid to the State." •' Partly 

 corroborative of this statement is our description, in the 

 earlier portion of this work, of the discussion in Parliament, 

 which took place in 1660, over the abolition of the feudal 

 dues.^ Two sources of commutation revenue — viz., a tax on 



* England's Wants and Several Proposals, etc., etc. Dr. Chamberlaine, 

 1689. 



' Arthur Young called the tax '" a monster of finance " — a hideous 

 experiment tried wherever despotism has spread her banner, and never 

 without carrying desolation and poverty in its train. — Annals of Agricul- 

 ture, vol. XX. p. 495. 



* Financial Reformer's Almanack for 1880, p. 145. 



* English Landed Interest, Part I. p. 351. 



