rights. The expense of the administration of
justice, therefore, may very properly be defrayed
by the particular contribution of one
or other, or both, of those two different sets
of persons, according as different occasions
may require, that is, by the fees of court. It
cannot be necessary to have recourse to the
general contribution of the whole society, except
for the conviction of those criminals who
have not themselves any estate or fund sufficient
for paying those fees.
Those local or provincial expenses, of which
the benefit is local or provincial (what is laid
out, for example, upon the police of a particular
town or district), ought to be defrayed
by a local or provincial revenue, and ought to
be no burden upon the general revenue of the
society. It is unjust that the whole society
should contribute towards an expense, of
which the benefit is confined to a part of the
society.
The expense of maintaining good roads
and communications is, no doubt, beneficial
to the whole society, and may, therefore, without
any injustice, be defrayed by the general
contributions of the whole society. This expense,
however, is most immediately and directly
beneficial to those who travel or carry
goods from one place to another, and to those
who consume such goods. The turnpike tolls
in England, and the duties called peages in
other countries, lay it altogether upon those
two different sets of people, and thereby discharge
the general revenue of the society from
a very considerable burden.
The expense of the institutions for education
and religious instruction, is likewise, no
doubt, beneficial to the whole society, and
may, therefore, without injustice, be defrayed
by the general contribution of the whole society.
This expense, however, might, perhaps,
with equal propriety, and even with
some advantage, be defrayed altogether by
those who receive the immediate benefit of
such education and instruction, or by the voluntary
contribution of those who think they
have occasion for either the one or the other.
When the institutions, or public works,
which are beneficial to the whole society, either
cannot be maintained altogether, or are
not maintained altogether, by the contribution
of such particular members of the society as
are most immediately benefited by them; the
deficiency must, in most cases, be made up
by the general contribution of the whole society.
The general revenue of the society, over
and above defraying the expense of defending
the society, and of supporting the dignity of
the chief magistrate, must make up for the
deficiency of many particular branches of revenue.
The sources of this general or public
revenue, I shall endeavour to explain in
the following chapter.
CHAP. II.
OF THE SOURCES OF THE GENERAL OR PUBLIC
REVENUE OF THE SOCIETY.
The revenue which must defray, not only
the expense of defending the society and of
supporting the dignity of the chief magistrate,
but all the other necessary expenses of government,
for which the constitution of the state
has not provided any particular revenue may
be drawn, either, first, from some fund which
peculiarly belongs to the sovereign or commonwealth,
and which is independent of the
revenue of the people; or, secondly, from the
revenue of the people.
PART I.
Of the Funds, or Sources, of Revenue, which
may peculiarly belong to the Sovereign or
Commonwealth.
The funds, or sources, of revenue, which
may peculiarly belong to the sovereign or
commonwealth, must consist, either in stock,
or in land.
The sovereign, like any other owner of
stock, may derive a revenue from it, either
by employing it himself, or by lending it. His
revenue is, in the one case, profit, in the other
interest.
The revenue of a Tartar or Arabian chief
consists in profit. It arises principally from
the milk and increase of his own herds and
flocks, of which he himself superintends the
management, and is the principal shepherd or
herdsman of his own horde or tribe. It is,
however, in this earliest and rudest state of
civil government only, that profit has ever
made the principal part of the public revenue
of a monarchical state.
Small republics have sometimes derived a
considerable revenue from the profit of mercantile
projects. The republic of Hamburgh
is said to do so from the profits of a public
wine-cellar and apothecary's shop.[50] That state
cannot be very great, of which the sovereign has
leisure to carry on the trade of a wine-merchant
or an apothecary. The profit of a public bank
has been a source of revenue to more considerable