the fiftieth part of its actual value. In some
towns, the whole land tax is assessed upon
houses; as in Westminster, where stock and
trade are free. It is otherwise in London.
In all countries, a severe inquisition into
the circumstances of private persons has been
carefully avoided.
At Hamburg,[60] every inhabitant is obliged
to pay to the state one fourth per cent. of all
that he possesses; and as the wealth of the
people of Hamburg consists principally in
stock, this tax may be considered as a tax
upon stock. Every man assesses himself,
and, in the presence of the magistrate, puts
annually into the public coffer a certain sum
of money, which he declares upon oath, to be
one fourth per cent. of all that he possesses,
but without declaring what it amounts to, or
being liable to any examination upon that
subject. This tax is generally supposed to
be paid with great fidelity. In a small republic,
where the people have entire confidence
in their magistrates, are convinced of
the necessity of the tax for the support of the
state, and believe that it will be faithfully applied
to that purpose, such conscientious and
voluntary payment may sometimes be expected.
It is not peculiar to the people of Hamburg.
The canton of Underwald, in Switzerland,
is frequently ravaged by storms and inundations,
and it is thereby exposed to extraordinary
expenses. Upon such occasions the
people assemble, and every one is said to
declare with the greatest frankness what he is
worth, in order to be taxed accordingly. At
Zurich, the law orders, that in cases of necessity,
every one should be taxed in proportion
to his revenue; the amount of which he is
obliged to declare upon oath. They have no
suspicion, it is said, that any of their fellow-citizens
will deceive them. At Basil, the
principal revenue of the state arises from a
small custom upon goods exported. All the
citizens make oath, that they will pay every
three months all the taxes imposed by law.
All merchants, and even all inn-keepers, are
trusted with keeping themselves the account
of the goods which they sell, either within or
without the territory. At the end of every
three months, they send this account to the
treasurer, with the amount of the tax computed
at the bottom of it. It is not suspected
that the revenue suffers by this confidence.[61]
To oblige every citizen to declare publicly
upon oath, the amount of his fortune, must
not, it seems, in those Swiss cantons, be reckoned
a hardship. At Hamburg it would
be reckoned the greatest. Merchants engaged
in the hazardous projects of trade, all
tremble at the thoughts of being obliged, at
all times, to expose the real state of their circumstances.
The ruin of their credit, and
the miscarriage of their projects, they foresee,
would too often be the consequence.
A sober and parsimonious people, who are
strangers to all such projects, do not feel that
they have occasion for any such concealment.
In Holland, soon after the exaltation of
the late prince of Orange to the stadtholdership,
a tax of two per cent. or the fiftieth
penny, as it was called, was imposed upon the
whole substance of every citizen. Every citizen
assessed himself, and paid his tax, in the
same manner as at Hamburg, and it was in
general supposed to have been paid with
great fidelity. The people had at that time
the greatest affection for their new government,
which they had just established by a general
insurrection. The tax was to be paid but
once, in order to relieve the state in a particular
exigency. It was, indeed, too heavy
to be permanent. In a country where the
market rate of interest seldom exceeds three
per cent., a tax of two per cent. amounts to
thirteen shillings and four pence in the
pound, upon the highest neat revenue which
is commonly drawn from stock. It is a tax
which very few people could pay, without
encroaching more or less upon their capitals.
In a particular exigency, the people may,
from great public zeal, make a great effort,
and give up even a part of their capital, in
order to relieve the state. But it is impossible
that they should continue to do so for any
considerable time; and if they did, the tax
would soon ruin them so completely, as to
render them altogether incapable of supporting
the state.
The tax upon stock, imposed by the land
tax bill in England, though it is proportioned
to the capital, is not intended to diminish or
take away any part of that capital. It is
meant only to be a tax upon the interest of
money, proportioned to that upon the rent of
land; so that when the latter is at four shillings
in the pound, the former may be at four
shillings in the pound too. The tax at Hamburg,
and the still more moderate taxes of
Underwald and Zurich, are meant, in the
same manner, to be taxes, not upon the capital,
but upon the interest or neat revenue of
stock. That of Holland was meant to be a
tax upon the capital.
Taxes upon the Profit of particular Employments.
In some countries, extraordinary taxes are
imposed upon the profits of stock; sometimes
when employed in particular branches of
trade, and sometimes when employed in agriculture.
Of the former kind, are in England, the