The Sun.
London, England, 1845-03-03 00:00:00

If a nation were in a condition that its administration
and security could be maintained without exacting that
-tax upon. the value of commodities, which constitutes,
not the whole national income, but, as usually levied,
what is termed the indirect public revenue, then no duty
whatever should be levied, either upon articles pro-
duced at home, or upon those imported from foreign
countries.
A public revenue being indispensable to defray the
necessary public expenditure, property, whether in land,
or in commodities produced at home, or imported from
abroad, ought to be taxed, or made to yield up annually
a just proportion of its rent or profit equal to the amount
of the annual legitimate claims upon the nation. This
proportion of th annual rent, or profit, of property,
would then form the whole amount of equitable taxa-
tion. levied upon all that could equitably constitute the
whole national income.

• If commodities which enter into home consumption
,are to be taxed, the equitable scale of levying this tax
would be, to levy exactly- the same duty upon an ar-
ticle produced at home as upon a similar article imported
from abroad.

There can be no other equitable scale of taxing com-
modities, whether produced at home, or imported from
abroad for domestic consumption.
The producer never pays the tax upon the article he
produces ; he must add, to make any profit by it, the
duty or tax, as well as his profit, to the cost of produc-
tion, and then the consumer pays the whole, including
the tax.

Whoever produces the article consumed, or wherever
it is produced, the consumer pays, not the cost of pro-
ducing it, but the whole market value of the article, in-
cluding. every tax upon it. The producer is, however,
limited in his sales by the article he produces being
highly taxed, whether at home or abroad, and his profits
are also diminished by taxes, either at home or abroad,
upon the article which he produces, as well as by the
taxes upon every article which he consumes.
If the market value of the home-produced article be
higher than the cost of a similar article produced and
imported from abroad, that difference of valuearises from
a restriction upon the admission for consumption of the
cheaper article, either by actual prohibition or by high
duties forming practical prohibition, er by duties so high
that the foreign article can only be imported and used at
prices equal to the amount both of its natural market
value and also of the tax added, either for revenue or to
protect the article produced at home.
The diff,trence between the natural price of an article
imported from abroad, and the higher price of a similar
article produced at home, is a tax imposed upon the
whole community, in order to put the amount of that dif-
ference into the pocket of the producer of the home-
made article ; it is also a far greater burden upon the
nation, which is further taxed to the value of so much of
the labour, production, trade, and navigation, which the
protective tax restricts.

If taxation upon articles of consumption be indispen-
sable to meet the cl.ims upon the public revenue, then,
if a quarter of wheat impoi ted from Prussia, Odessa, or
elsewhere, pay a duty of 85 , or 45., when entered
for consumption in the United Kingdom ; in like
manner, every quarter of wheat produced at home
ought, on sound principle, to pay a duty of Bs. or
4s. ; or, if 1121 b. of sugar imported from Jamaica
.pay a duty of 245. when entered for consumption,
there should be no distinction made to the consumer,
when he pays a tax on the sugar he uses, whether it has
been produced in Bengal, Brazil, Cuba, Jamaica, Java,
or elsewhere ; or if a gallon of distilled spirits produced
and consumed at home be taxed 10s., in that case agallon
of distilled spirits, whether imported from France, Hot.
land, the West Indies, or elsewhere, ought to pay no
more, when consumed in the United Kingdom, than a
tax of 10s.

In accordance, therefore, with the foregoing princi-
ples, that country which possesses average advantages
from nature, and whose population possesses the greatest
industry, ingenuity, and intelligence, will, if unfettered
from legislative restriction, become, in proportion to its
extent, resources, and advantages, the most flourishing
country in the world; or at lea. t as prosperous as any
other country with equal natural and moral advantages,
and legislating upon equally liberal principles.
We believe that the United Kingdom possesses all the
requisite advantages to become that which nothing but
false legislation prevents, viz , far more independent,
prosperous, and far more rich and powerful, and with
the whole popillati,n far less poor, far better employed,
more fairly paid for their labour, better sheltered, clad,
and fed, and more comfortable than that, at the present
tin.?, of any other country in the world.
The agriculture, the manufactures, the shipping, the
foreign and colonial trade, and the power of the United
Kingdom might, in their present stage, be viewed as
only. in their infancy, instead of being considered as
baring before now attained manhood, if those sound
iprincip!es of fiscal and commercial legislation. which we
have attempted to elucidate, but which are not new, were
boldly taken up, in order to be carried by the Imperial
Parliament.

, I v.
FINANCIAL REVISION.

1. REVISION OF THE ASSUSEDAisI; INCOME TAXES.
The most convenient adjustment of the present as-
sessed taxes oould be to abolish them altogether,
and substitute a direct tax upon tile profits of all
realised property. A revenue of from 10,000,0001. to
12 000 000/. might be raised by this simple and
just method of direct taxation ; and we are con-
fident, from what we have observed in France, Austria,
Prussia, and some other States, that its collection would
in a short period be found less grievous to the inhabi•
tants (f Great Britain than the existing vexatious and
inquisitorial assessed taxes. But we are not blind to
the Parliamentary obstacles opposed to such an equi-
table tax in suibstitution of the existing assessed and in-
come taxes, and to provide for other taxes which we
propose to abolish.

One obstacle to our plan is the Land Tax Redemption
Act of 1789—certainly the greatest financial blunder
ever committed by a British statesman. The rotten-
ness of one measure of expediency will ever be found
to give biith to some other unsound expedient, to
palliate for the time what is only curable by a
bold anti sound remedy.. Temporary expediencies,
without any certain provision fur future exigencies,
cceasiored the iiiianc.al difficulties that called forth
the Rank Restriction Act. The embarrassments in
which this Act involved the then Chancellor of the
lehequer made him seize upon the most available
expedient:: that was, to offer up for sale the fixed
revenues of Groat Britain. The history of this mea-
sure, as far as it has been carried into effect,
may be usefully instructive in showing how little
advantage had been gained to the Treasury, not only in '
proportion to the amount of revenue lost, but especially
as regards the obstacle which the Land Tax Redemption
Act has formel to a-sound adjustment of the taxation
of Great Britain. Had the land-tax been completely,
instead of partially redeemed, this -difficulty in the way
of financial legislation would have been greatly dimi-
nished; but, as it is, it has formed a plea fbr not im-
posing any further tax upon land. But to this plea we
are honestly bound to demur.
Another difficulty opposed to an equitable adjustment
of the assessed taxes is the circumstance of there
being no such taxes levied in Ireland. The justice,
again. of this exemption in one, and of liability in
the other two, of the three United Kingdoms, would
be a task requiring powers of more than ordinary
ability to defend. The justice of the exemption we
deny. Taking the assessed taxes of Great Britain as
we now rind them, and considering them to be not only
inquisitorial and grievous in the collection, but exceed-
ingly injurious in their application. being detrimental to
industry and to the employment of artisans and the la-
bouring classes, we confider the following revision as the
most equitable, which may be adopted
with the least
objection in practiee, and with the greatest safety to the
Reel:4ll:er.
The net amount of land, and other assessed
taxes, 4): 1844. was ....................
•
The net amount of land, and other assessed
Net amount of assessed taxes, exclusive of

land-taxes
The net amount ofland-tax
'faxes, for 1644
The nct ainount of land-lax

Net amount of assessed taxes, exclusive of
13nd-tax
All those taxes we propose to abolish, for the follow-
ing reasons :-
1. The window••tax, which yielded for
the year 1839 £1,298,262
Reasons fur Abolition.—Being inquisitorial and vex-
ations in the assessment and collection ; injurious to the
Lealth of the population ; being objectionable as regards
architecture, cleanlines3, and restricting the employment
in glass manufactures of joiners who make window
frames, of glaziers and painters; and being a tax unequal
is its assessment, as large houses do not require the

OMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL
LEGISLA rioN.
(Continued from The Sun of Feb. 18.)
HI.
TAXES UPON CONSUMPTION.

The Governments of nearly all countries have, pro-
bably as far back as their foundation, exacted tribute, or
tolls, on the importation or exportation of commodities.
The department of Government establishe' to levy those
taxes was variously named. It was originally neither
more nor less than a tollhouse erected at inland passes,
or at landing-places, for collecting a tribute to be paid to
the king or prince. In progress of time it grew up to
be one of the most formidable departments of state, by
the sea-coast, by straits, by rivers, and by land. In Ger-
many the name is still Zed, or toll ; in France, Douane ;
in Italy, Dogana.
Commodities produced in one country and imported
into another country, to be used therein, can only enter
.extensively into consumption when the price is as low as,
or lower than, that at which similar commodities can be
produced at home.
The natural advantages or disadvantages of soil,
climate, minerals, raw materials, geographical position,
population, and the state of the arts and sciences, vary so
greatly in one country from those of another, that some
countries can produce same commodities which others
cannot at equally low prices.
Commodities which a country does not produce at all,
or only at high prices, can be consumed by the non-pro-
ducing or dear producing country with more advantage
.And in greater quantity, if those articles are purchased
at and brought from the places where they are to be
found at the cheapest cost.
There is no country, with ordinary advantages, that
.does not produce some commodities so cheaply as to find
at market for what it produces, over its own consump-
tion, in some other country, and from which a different
kind of article may be brought with profit in return.
This interchange constitutes international trade.
The more numerous or burdensome are the restric-
tions the more limited will this commerce be.
The fewer and lighter are the restrictions the more
,extended will it prove.
All experience form evidence of these facts.
. . .