The National Register.
London, England, 1818-08-02 00:00:00

tr

No. 547.--Vor.. XL

RESOURCHS OF THE COUNTRY.

PaOPORTION OF TI 111:BT AND RE.IOI,IOCES OF THIS COUh-

TAY AT TNIN PRESENT AND FORMER PRIMUS.

P TOM 31r. 17 ELL ows' Tract of " The Rights of Property vindicated
against the Claims of Universal Suffrage." i

" Upon the accession of George the First, in 1714,
the debt amounted to 54, t 45,3631. ; the same debt, as it
s►ood on the Ist of February, 1317, had accumulated
to 819,5.16,9371. The reign of George I. embraced
a period of 12 years, 10 months, and 10 days, during
which the whole sums produced by the Customs was
;21.632,9851.,.and by the Fscise 50,421,4511. Now
the articles subject to Customs and Excise arc each as
the majority of a nation never purchase till they are
provided with other commodities of more indispensable
necessity. The increase of the former keeps pace with
the increase of the national weaith, and exhibits a cer-
tain demonstration of that increase.

" The Customs fur the year ending January the sth,
1816, ansaunted to 10,487,5221.; the Excise duties,
during the saute interval, produced 26,562,4321.—the
then existing war duties are included in this amount.
Here the Customs for one year will be found to have
pruduced nearly as much as they did in six years of the
reign of George and the Excise. during one year of
the present reign, ~amounted to a sum equal to about
five.siaths of the total produce, during a period of more
than twelve years in the above-mentioned reign The
produce of the Stamps may not be thought to furnish
so *ore a test of national wealth, as that of the Customs
and Excise; but yet as they are an index of a multi.
.:icrtous class Or dealings betwixt man and man, they
may serve to elucidate the amount of the circulating
wealth during any particular period. If we compare
the amount uF the Stamp Ditty in• George. I. With that
in the present reign, we shall be forcibly struck with
the disparity, During the latter part of George I. the
Stamps produced the annual sum of 132,6651.; whilst
between the sth of Jan. 1816, and the sth of Jan,
1817, they amounted to 5,965,4341. or near six mill-
lions sterling. Notwithstanding the immense increase
in the scale of the Stansp Duty, which has taken place
it the present reit,m, we must recollect that it is the in-
creased opulence and multiplied dealings of the country
which have enabled it to hear this increase; and it must
rit the sante time be considered, that though the pay-
ment of the duty is compulsory upon particular legal
and commercial transactions, those transactions them-
selves are optional ; and that therefore the payment of
the duty itself being so far spontaneous, the increase on
that duty can be owing to nothing but the prosperity •
of the country. The increased revenue of the Post
Mice furnishes a signal proof not only of the increased
bat of the increased wealth of the country
within the last century. In the four last years of
George I. the Pest o:Ece produced an average of
75,3451. in the ye:ir. In the year ending Ole sth or
.lanuay 18; 7, the sat sour of revenue yielded no
less than i,416,0001. Here we have notch more thau
a decuple increase, and in a species of voluntary pay-
ment, which furnishes a striking criterion of afflueace.
A national debt must be considered great be small, ac-
cording to the wealth the people by whom it has been
incurred, unit oat of which it is to be paid. A debt of
ole million to a hour. country may be mare than a debt
of ten millions to a rich ; as one individual may be
teach less distressed by a debt of a thousand, than ano-
ti,er may by a debt of one hundred, or even only ten
pounds."
By this it typcars, that whereas the national debt
has increased slime the rei...rn of Gest. I. to nearly sixteen
times what it tliva was—the Customs have iitereasel
seven timnes—the Ex.:ise to something more than ten
times—and the Post GM.:o to eghte.n times thc;c
I:ftuer amounts.