Present Incidence of the Land-tax in Agricultural Counties. 437 
Parliaments had provided for the extraordinary necessities of the Government 
chiefly by granting subsidies. A subsidy was raised by an impost on the 
people of the realm in respect of their reputed estates. Landed property 
was the chief subject of taxation, and was assessed nominally at four 
shillings in the pound. But the assessment was made in such a way that it 
not only did not rise in proportion to the rise in the value of land, or to the 
fall in the value of the precious metals, hut went on constantly sinking, till 
at length the rate was, in truth, less than twopence in the pound. In the 
time of Charles the First a real tax of four shillings in the pound on land 
would probably have yielded near a million and a half, but a subsidy 
amounted to little more than fifty thousand pounds. 
The financiers of the Long Parliament devised a more efficient mode of 
taxing estates. The sum which was to be raised was fixed. It was then 
distributed among the counties in proportion to their supposed wealth, and 
was levied within each county by a rate. The revenue derived from these 
assessments in the time of the Commonwealth varied from thirty-five 
thousand pounds to a hundred and twenty thousand pounds a month. 
After the Restoration the Legislature seemed for a time inclined to 
revert in finance, as in other things, to the ancient practice. Subsidies were 
once or twice granted to Charles the Second. But it soon appeared that 
the old system was much less convenient than the new system. 
The Cavaliers condescended to take a lesson in the art of taxation from 
the Roundheads ; and during the interval between the Restoration and the 
Revolution extraordinary calls were occasionally met by assessments re- 
sembling the assessments of the Commonwealth. 
After the Revolution the war with France made it necessary to have 
recourse annually to this abundant source of revenue. In 1689, in 1690, 
and in 1691 great sums had been raised on the land. At length, in 1692, it 
was determined to draw supplies from real property more largely than ever. 
The Commons resolved that a new and more accurate valuation of estates 
should be made over the whole realm, and that on the rental thus ascer- 
tained a pound rate should be paid to the Government. 
Such was the origin of the existing land-tax. The valuation made in 
1692 has remained unaltered do wn to our own time. According to that 
valuation one shilling in the pound on the rental of the kingdom amounted 
in round numbers to half a million. During a hundred and six years a Land- 
tax Bill was annually presented to Parliament, and was annually passed, 
though not always, without murmurs from the country gentlemen. The 
rate was, in time of war, four shillings in the pound. In time of peace, 
before the reign of George the Third, only two or three shillings were 
usually granted, and during a short part of the prudent and gentle adminis- 
tration of Walpole the Government asked for only one shilling. 
But after the disastrous year in which England drew the sword against 
her American colonies the rate was never less than four shillings. At 
length, in the year 1798, the Parliament relieved itself from the trouble 
of passing a new Act every spring. The land-tax at four shillings in the 
pound was made permanent, and those who were subject to it were per- 
mitted to redeem it. A great part has been redeemed, and at present 
a little more than a fiftieth of the ordinary revenue required in time of 
peace is raised by that impost which was once regarded as the most pro- 
ductive of all the resources of the State. — Ed.] 
