CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES 



INTRODUCTORY : The case of agriculture must be taken in 

 connection with the whole system of national and local 

 finance. Report of the Royal Commission on Local 

 Taxation. The Agricultural Rates Act only a makeshift 

 expedient. Local Finance full of anomalies and inequalities 

 which are increasing. The equity of any tax cannot be 

 judged by itself. In dealing with taxation, equity not the 

 only consideration. Other canons of taxation and the 

 influence of sentiment, history and custom. The popular 

 idea that certain rates and taxes form a hereditary burden 

 on land must be examined in the light of history. 



CHAPTER II 



NATIONAL TAXES 



THE legal idea that all land is held under the Crown has no 

 bearing on taxation. The Crown, as representing the 

 nation, gradually abandoned its feudal privileges and the 

 ancient demesne lands. The process of denationalisation 

 completed and legalised two centuries ago. Taxation (in 

 the true sense) of land of very ancient origin, but always 

 associated with taxation of personality. The land tax 

 originally part of a general income tax. On the whole, 

 down to 1894 agricultural land taxed less than other forms 

 of property for national purposes, especially as regards the 

 Death Duties. Protection and bounties also given, Peel's 

 opinion on the claim for relief on the abandonment of 

 protection approved by Henry Sidgwick. As regards 

 national taxation, history shows no peculiar hereditary 

 burden on land rather the contrary. At present no 

 unearned increment over the greater part of the 



agricultural land of England. 



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