The Sun.
London, England, 1846-06-04 00:00:00

BURDENS ON REAL PROPERTY. 1
REPORT FROM THE SELECT COMMITTEE.
The following is the report of the Committee by the
Lords Committees appointed a Select Committee to in-
quire into Burdens on, Real Property, and the impedi-
ments to agricultural transactions, caused by the system
of Excise duties, poor-laws, and local taxation ; and also
to inquire and to report on the legislative exemptions
and pecuniary advantages provided by law in respect to
taxation a' affecting landed property.
Ordered to report, that the Committee have met, and
considered the matter to them referred, and have exa-
mined several witnesses in relation thereto, and have
agreed to the following reporte—
The Committee have thought it expedient to divide the
subject into two beads, viz., .4Restrictions upon Cultiva-
tion," and "Positive Charges ;" both being imposed for
the general advantage, and net for the special benefit of
that class upon which they exclusively or mainly fall.
Under the first head it appears to the Committee that
they should include the prohibition to grow tobacco, and
the restririi: n on Yie u-e of melt fer agrieulturel
purueses. to censecirrence of the heavy duty impeeed
upon it.
The tenant farmers lay great stress nn the malt duty,and
its injurious interference with the cultivation of barley.
The Committee, however, cannot consider that impost,
which, on the average of the last ten years, has produced
very nearly 5,000,0001. annually, as borne exclusively by
the land ; beer being almost a necessary of life with theh
mass of the population, the duty falls as a generaltaxo
the consumers of the article ; but it is unquestionableadthat so heavy a duty diminishes the demantd,
qualities of
de-
prives of a ready market all except the be
°pi tserof barley
barley. A duty of 21s. Bd. on
costing 345. is so heavy
to buy inferior barley
a tax, thaat Mrar. Barclay is of
opinion that no brewer can afford
and make it into malt. The agriculturaleomplain loudly
fs ex-
aminedthe before the Committee .
restriction the excise laws impose on malting inferior
The advantages of this
barleys for fattening purposes._
between learned
process having been matterof dispute
chemists and practical farmers, the Committee will con-
tent themselves by referring to the evidence of Mr, Hud-
son, of Castleacre, Mr. Bennett, &c., on this subject, and
adding, that if further experiments should establish the
utility of the process, the malt-duty must be considered
as a serious obstruction to agricultural economy. -
The Committee consider the malt and other excise
duties rather as restrictions on cultivation, and as impe-
diments to the improvement of land, than as exclusive
charges on real property. The duty on hops amounted,
in 1844, to 388,526/. ; the duty on British sugars to
7,0521. ; the duty on bricks to 435,735/.
The Committee have no means of ascertaining the
exact amount of injury inflicted on real property by the
excise-laws; they cannot, however, but conclude, from
the evidence before them, that the repeal of the malt
duty would considerably increase the demand fcr barley,
and that the removal of the duty on bricks would not
only tend to the more rapid improvement of real pro-
perty in towns and their vicinity, but, what is still more
important, add to the comforts of the poorer classes by
improving the character of their habitations.
The Committee have attempted, under the second
head, to ascertain the extent of the various charges to
which real property is subiect, and to place them under
the consideration of the House.
It is evident that every compulsory charge levied upon
the land, and which becomes payable out of its proceeds
before any portion of them is available or applicable to
the profits of the capital vested in it, must be held to
affect that capital.
If such charges are of a magnitude to reduce the value
of the net produce of the land below the average profits
of capital, such capital would, in accordance with general
principles, be withdrawn from the cultivation of the soil,
to be diverted into some other channel. It is, however,
universally admitted th it this general principle is in
some degree disturbel by the preference gives to seme
occupations over others. The cultivation of land will
attract capital at a lower rate of interest than most o h r
occupations ; the rate of remunerating profit is conse
qnenily smaller, and it would, in pr. portion, be sooner
exnaustel by extraordinary Inadene
In estimating the amount of the burdens to which
real property is sabje the Committee have not deemed
it necessary to attempt to draw a disticction betwiren the
owner and occupier or the soil, as r presenting separate
interests. In many parts of toe count, y they are actually
identical, the owners cultivating their own property.
Letting laud to cap tali,ts, insvead of the owner cultivat
ing it hi “self, ie only a cliffLre- t aide of inatiag mew;
and all chores upon the hied, whether pe:d by
the Owner or occupier, reduce the net profits of their
joint capital inveeted in the cultivation of it. The capi-
talist hires the use of the land, and of the buildings
necessary for the cultivation of it, as an instrument by
which he may turn his capital to profit ; and the price
he offers is regulated by the liabilities he incurs in the
employment of such an instrument. When those liabi-
lities are easily ascertained, the capitalist can precisely
calculate the consequent reducttoa in the amount he
would otherwise pay for the use of the soil ; but in cases
where the charges fluctuate, and an approximation to
their amount can alone-be made, he subjects himself to
the variation of those charges during the term of his
occupation. When these direct and indirect charges
equal in amount the profit remaining after the expenses
of management and interest of capital have been deducted,
the capitalist is no longer able to pay for the hire of the
instrument with which he employs his capital.
The land-tax, in the opinion of the Committee, is a
burden upon the land, inasmuch as it must be deducted
from the gross proceeds of the land before its net product
can become available as profits of capital. The tempo-
rary Act of the 4th William and Mary imposed
a rate of 4s. in the pound on land, hereditaments, tene-
ments, offices, and pensions, and 245. per 1001. on per-
sonal estates; but in the subsequent annual Acts the
rate varies from 4s. to is. in the pound on lands, here-
ditaments, &c. The 38th of George 111. fixed the
quotas payable by each county, city, and borough, and
directed the commissioners under the Act to charge
the several divisions in proportion to the sums assessed
thereon by the temporary Act of William and Mary.
Although the quotas are fixed, in reference to each
district, by the Act of George 111., the law admits
a variation in the allotment of the sum amongst
the different owners of property within the
districts, and redemptiens continue in consequence ;
although except for the purpose of insurance against an
increased rate on approved property, the privilege of
redemption is, at the present price of the funds, nearly
a dead letter. This tax is most unequal in its pressure;
and, from the statement put in by Mr. Wood, it appears
that the quotas ant higher in proportion to the value of
property in the purely agricultural counties than in the
mining and manufacturing districts. According to the
latest returns, the land-tax unredeemed amounts to the
sum of 1,164,042/. The amount of land-tax which has
been redeemed no longer appears as a burden upon land;
but it tnu.t not be forgotten that the proprietors of land,
in order to escape from the operation of the tax, have
paid over to the state an amount of capital of which the
sum redeemed represents the annual interest, and of
which the state is still deriving the advantage.
The poor-trite, including tee e •unty rate. amounted in
1444, to 6,847,205/. That amount is the return of actual
payments; out the evidence accompanying this report is
pregnant vith proof that the eteployannt of unprofit-
able laeour would c.,ustitute an important addition to
such returns. In orler to reduce the po..r-rate. the far-
mers in many parishes emplo., mere hands than the eco-
nomical working of the land recyr tee. Mr. Robert
Smith explains this system ; and B_kei• e3eueetes
this additional outlay on his farm at 31 per week oti 500
acres. The ac nal sum levied in the name of the p or-
rate does not, theretige, correctly represent the fuil
amount of the charge impose I upon real property by the
laws regarding the tualutenaece of the poor. It is true
that, as tar as he is a ratepe er, the m rnufacturer
be influete ed by sitntl ir motives t' keep in e npl
r s time enerote.eee.: ;
th-s • motive, eperate e. course, d paid up the
restive proper ion of the charges to wroch tho respective
interests are subjected.
The highway rates, exclusive of those which are at
present relieved by the aid of turnpike trusts, amounted
in 1839 to 1,169,891/. The Committee feel it their duty
to observe, that the ratepayers not only have not the
exclusive use of the highways, but are not even allowed
to limit their expense by the repairs necessary for tne
on v""e
of agricultural produce ; inasmuch as the
roads, if not in a state of repair sufficient for purposes
of general traffic, may be indicted for any party using
them, although such party is not liable to the highway
rate.
The Committee feel it their. duty to direct attention to
the probability oefuthreefepairs of the turnpike-roads
falling eventually
that in the neiglabourtlooTor rarr. Baxter state.
?Zoratyc.asttehetoelhatirare eyiaidto
the turnpike trusts, notwithstanding
mainte-
nance of the roads has fallen en the rues. Mr. Bennet
also bears testimony to a rate being raised in the last
year for the repairs of the Holyhead turnpike-road in
his parish, amounting to an expenditure of about 100/.
per mile. However important may be the advantages
which accrue to the landed interest from the improve-
ment of the highways, their maintenance is not the less
a positive charge or burden affecting the profits of the
real property of the country.
The church-rates constitute a smaller, but still a_
po-
sitive charge upon real property ; they amounted in
1839 to 506,8121., this being the latest return.
The Committee are of opinion that the tithe commuta-
tion rent-charge operates as a burden on the land which
is subject to it, inasmuch as a certain amount measured
in produce must be paid, whatever may be the nature
of the cultivation or the return made by it. The value
of the crops, without reference to the natural qualities of
the soil, being taken into consideration ire fixing the
basis on which the commutation rests, lands which by
artificial means were rendered highly productive during
the seven years on which the commutation is based,
have become in consequence permanently liable to a
heavy rent charge. Mr. Weal, in his evidence, states
that the high firming introduced at great expense into
the parishes of Beddington and Wallington had raised the
tithes during the yeers preceding the Commutation Act,
from 33. 63. per acre to 73. and Bs. per acre. Mr. Bennet
remarked that the heaviest wheat lands have the heaviest
tithes upon them ; thus imposing the heaviest charge
where cultivation is the most expensive. 31r. Cramp
says the tithes in the parish
tin which he resides amounts
to 17s. 6d. per acre;
and re, in answers 2,524
and 2,525, confirms the evidence Bami
nceo of preceding witnesses,
that the rent-charge amounts, in some cases, to more
than one- half the rem,- that one-third is not an unusual
proportion, and that there are 90039 rare cases where
the rent-charge is equal in amount to the while rent.
On the supposition of a continued reductien in the
amount of pruct,e3s derived from capital invested in the
cultivation of the lend, it is self evident that titheable
land would be adandoeed sooner than laud which is
tithe-free ; and though the landowner has no claim
whatever to the p .operty of the titheowner, the
tithe itself would in that case have the effect of divert-
lug capital from its cultivation. The Committee, there-
fore submit te the consideration of the Huse, the fact
that 4.500,000 L, levied wader the T,the Compagatiou