86 RATES AND TAXES 



reduction from the competition standard, 

 the tenant would not only nominally but 

 really pay the rates. 



The general conclusion thus seems to be 

 that down to the end of the eighteenth 

 century local rates are to be regarded as 

 essentially of the nature of a local income 

 tax. But in the first place, owing to a 

 confusion between persons and things, the 

 occupiers of lands and houses, and not the 

 owners, came to be rated. So far, the land- 

 owner as such escaped, unless through 

 economic forces, such as competition, some 

 of the tax was transferred to him. 1 That 

 the landowner escaped may have been 

 most inequitable, but at any rate, if for 

 centuries he escaped, his land can hardly 

 be said to have become subject to a 

 hereditary burden. 



And secondly, owing to the practical 

 1 See below, chap. iv. 



