and in the greater part of the states of
Italy.
In France, the greater part of the actual
revenue of the crown is derived from eight
different sources; the taille, the capitation,
the two vingtiemes, the gabelles, the aides,
the traites, the domaine, and the farm of tobacco.
The five last are, in the greater part
of the provinces, under farm. The three first
are everywhere levied by an administration,
under the immediate inspection and direction
of government; and it is universally acknowledged,
that in proportion to what they take
out of the pockets of the people, they bring
more into the treasury of the prince than the
other five, of which the administration is much
more wasteful and expensive.
The finances of France seem, in their present
state, to admit of three very obvious reformations.
First, by abolishing the taille and
the capitation, and by increasing the number of
the vingtiemes, so as to produce an additional
revenue equal to the amount of those other
taxes, the revenue of the crown might be preserved;
the expense of collection might be
much diminished; the vexation of the inferior
ranks of people, which the taille and capitation
occasion, might be entirely prevented;
and the superior ranks might not be more
burdened than the greater part of them are at
present. The vingtieme, I have already observed,
is a tax very nearly of the same kind
with what is called the land tax of England.
The burden of the taille, it is acknowledged,
falls finally upon the proprietors of land; and
as the greater part of the capitation is assessed
upon those who are subject to the taille, at so
much a-pound of that other tax, the final
payment of the greater part of it must likewise
fall upon the same order of people.
Though the number of the vingtiemes, therefore,
was increased, so as to produce an additional
revenue equal to the amount of both
those taxes, the superior ranks of people might
not be more burdened than they are at present;
many individuals, no doubt, would, on
account of the great inequalities with which
the taille is commonly assessed upon the estates
and tenants of different individuals. The
interest and opposition of such favoured subjects,
are the obstacles most likely to prevent
this, or any other reformation of the same
kind. Secondly, by rendering the gabelle,
the aides, the traites, the taxes upon tobacco,
all the different customs and excises, uniform
in all the different parts of the kingdom, those
taxes might be levied at much less expense,
and the interior commerce of the kingdom
might be rendered as free as that of England.
Thirdly, and lastly, by subjecting all those
taxes to an administration under the immediate
inspection and direction of government,
the exorbitant profits of the farmers-general
might be added to the revenue of the state.
The opposition arising from the private interest
of individuals, is likely to be as effectual
for preventing the two last as the first-mentioned
scheme of reformation.
The French system of taxation seems, in
every respect, inferior to the British. In
Great Britain, ten millions sterling are annually
levied upon less than eight millions of
people, without its being possible to say that
any particular order is oppressed. From the
Collections of the Abbé Expilly, and the observations
of the author of the Essay upon
the Legislation and Commerce of Corn, it
appears probable that France, including the
provinces of Lorraine and Bar, contains about
twenty-three or twenty-four millions of people;
three times the number, perhaps, contained
in Great Britain. The soil and climate
of France are better than those of Great Britain.
The country has been much longer in a
state of improvement and cultivation, and is,
upon that account, better stocked with all those
things which it requires a long time to raise
up and accumulate; such as great towns, and
convenient and well-built houses, both in town
and country. With these advantages, it might
be expected, that in France a revenue of thirty
millions might be levied for the support of
the state, with as little inconvenience as a revenue
of ten millions is in Great Britain. In
1765 and 1766, the whole revenue paid into
the treasury of France, according to the best,
though, I acknowledge, very imperfect accounts
which I could get of it, usually run
between 308 and 325 millions of livres; that
is, it did not amount to fifteen millions sterling;
not the half of what might have been
expected, had the people contributed in the
same proportion to their numbers as the people
of Great Britain. The people of France,
however, it is generally acknowledged, are
much more oppressed by taxes than the people
of Great Britain. France, however, is certainly
the great empire in Europe, which, after that
of Great Britain, enjoys the mildest and most
indulgent government.
In Holland, the heavy taxes upon the necessaries
of life have ruined, it is said, their
principal manufacturers, and are likely to discourage,
gradually, even their fisheries and
their trade in ship-building. The taxes upon
the necessaries of life are inconsiderable in
Great Britain, and no manufacture has hitherto
been ruined by them. The British taxes
which bear hardest on manufactures, are some
duties upon the importation of raw materials,
particularly upon that of raw silk. The revenue
of the States-General and of the different
cities, however, is said to amount to more
than five millions two hundred and fifty thousand
pounds sterling; and as the inhabitants
of the United Provinces cannot well be supposed
to amount to more than a third part
of those of Great Britain, they must, in proportion
to their number, be much more heavily
taxed.