NATIONAL TAXES 59 



in time to the window tax. The windows 

 were taxed of course simply as a convenient, 

 if rough, measure of wealth. There were 

 variations and exemptions at various times 

 (e.g., for a long time the windows in farm- 

 houses were not taxed), but the tax survived 

 as an important source of revenue down 

 to 1851. Long before this it had been 

 supplemented by a definite tax on the 

 annual value of inhabited houses. 



It is not necessary to show more in detail 

 what is abundantly plain in general, namely, 

 that down to the end of the great war in 

 1815, when practically "everything was taxed, 

 land was not, on the whole, subject to any 

 differential or special taxation as compared 

 with personal property that is, for national 

 purposes. If we look, as we ought to do, 

 at the whole burden imposed on the owners 

 and occupiers of agricultural land, as com- 

 pared with that imposed on the traders 



