THE LAND SYSTEM OF FRANCE 423 



and poorest class of the French peasantry. Imagine the English 

 agricultural labourers great buyers of land, and at the same time 

 lending no small sums to the State ! One ought, too, to bear in 

 mind, at the same time, the different histories of the two coun- 

 tries, and the condition in which the tyranny, misgovernment, 

 and wars of preceding centuries had left the rural population of 

 France half a century ago, not to speak of later political disasters. 

 Far from objecting to the subdivision of land which has resulted 

 from the legal facilities for its transfer and mortgage, the highest 

 French authorities are urgent for the removal of the obstacles 

 created by the high duties on both sales and successions. " In- 

 stead of placing obstacles in the way of changes of ownership 

 {nmtations'^), the true policy would be to encourage them. In addi- 

 tion to the direct taxation on land {Vimpot fonder), landed property 

 is subject to the much heavier burden on changes of ownership. 

 The value of immovable property annually sold may be estimated 

 at ;({^8o,ooo,ooo ; that which changes hands by succession at 

 ;!^6o,ooo,ooo ; the duties charged upon both amounting to 

 p{^8, 000,000. Such taxation is contrary to every principle, falling 

 as it does on capital and not on revenue." ^ 



We are not here concerned with the policy of duties on succes- 

 sion ; but there is one incontrovertible injustice in their incidence 

 in France which deserves notice namely, that the successor 

 pays duty on the entire value of the property, without any deduc- 

 tion for encumbrances, so that it sometimes happens that he 

 actually pays more than the full value of his inheritance. This 

 monstrous system of valuation offers, of course, a great obstacle 

 to raising capital for the improvement of land, while it adds not 

 a little to the encumbrances already upon . it the sort of en- 

 cumbrances added (sums borrowed to liquidate the duties) being 

 moreover entirely unproductive to the owners. 



There are, then, two causes of the subdivision of land in the 

 structure of French law the law of transfer and the law of 

 succession. But the fact that the subdivision promoted by one 



^ The term " mutations " is applied to all changes of ownership, whether by 

 purchase or inheritance. 



^ M. de Lavergne, ficonomie rurale de la France. 



