82 RATES AND TAXES 



stock-in-trade continued down to the present 

 century. 1 And as is well known, the liability 

 of stock-in-trade to be rated was decided 

 in the Law Courts in 1840, and was only 

 annulled by a continued Act of Parliament. 



Long before this at the end of the 

 seventeenth century and the beginning of 

 the eighteenth, 2 the drift of local and 

 Parliamentary opinion was in favour of 

 greater taxation of personal property. It 

 was solely the practical difficulty of estimating 

 the ability of people in terms of their other 

 possessions which led to the customary 

 exemption of personal property. 



Another exemption from rating is of 

 interest in connection with the present sub- 

 ject. We all know that in the income tax 

 as at present levied, a farmer must pay on 

 his profit, and the owner of the land on 

 the rent which he receives from the farmer. 

 1 Carman, p. 86. * Cannan, p. 89. 



