Star.
London, England, 1821-06-23 00:00:00

tion to the profit of other active capitals; and what-
• siper may be the temporary effect of a casual derange-
ment, it is obvious that this proportion must perma-
nently be maintained, because the application of ca-
pital would otherwise be changed from one mode of
employment to another, until the proper level was re-
stored.
So fat :•erefrnr as taxes fall upon the profits of
the active capitals of the country, whatever may be
the objects upon which they immediately attach, or
the parties by whom they are, :in the first instance,
paid, they operate, in their ultimate effect, as an abate-
ment of those-profits, equally affecting the trading,
the manufacturing, and the farming interests, by di-
minishing their means either of enjoyment, or of ac-
cumulating further capital by savings from their an-

nual incomes.
The manner and extent in 'which other classes
of the community, and other sources of income may
be affected by taxatiOn, do not come directly within
the scope of the present inquiry; but your Commit-
:e think it necessary to notice •a doctrine which has
prevailesl in sonic quarters—that the price of corn
in this country, in order to remunerate the grower,
must increase in the same ratio as the amount of our
pubiic revenue, so that if the latter be doubled, the
price of corn must be doubled also. If this assump•
Lion were well founded, it would follow, that, ex-
clusively of any change in the value of money, the
remunerating price in 1821, would be nearly one-
third lower than it was in 1811, taxes not much short
of that proportion to the•whole of our revenue hav-
ing been taken off in Great Britain since that year.
But without denying that the price of corn may be
in some degree affected by adding to our general
taxation, and that any charges particularly ,paid* by
the farmer, such as tithes and poor rates, must tend
more directly to taioe that price, it is obvious, from
what has been already stated, that the cost of grow-
ing corn in any country is regulated by the amount
of capital necessary to produce it upon lands paying
no rent, and that it is' the price of the portion of
corn which is so raised that determines the price of
all other corn ; and that an increase of general taxes, I
affecting alike the profits of capital in all the dif-
ferent branches of industry, would not necessarily
raie the ',rice of the particular produce of any one.
The price of corn, therefore, might fall in a coun-
try, notwithstanding additional taxation, if the quail-
tity required for the consumption of that country
could be raised, either by the cultivation of mote
fertile and pi'oductive soils, or by the application of
a diminished capital to the same soil, in consequence
of increased skill or improvements in husbandry.—
In
fact, no rise in the price of corn appears to have
taken place during three of the wars in which this
country was engaged during the last century, com-
pared with the prices of the years preceding and suc-
ceeding those wars; and during the last of them, the
American- war, prices were lower than during the
peace. This circumstance is the more to be remarked,
as there never was, perhaps, a period at which the
burden of taxation appeared to press more heavily
upon the resources of the country, and in which an
annual increase of taxes, accompanied with an an-
nual diminution of revenue, and a general stagna-
tion of improvements, indicated more strongly that ,
a part of those taxes must have been paid out of the
capital, and not out of the income of the nation.
On the other hand, however immense the expen-
diture of the la'" war, it is impossible to review the
vast private undertakings, begun and completed
during that war, in every branch of industry, with-
out feeling that those funds by which alone the pro-
ductive powers of the country can be put in motion,
must have been greatly increased, and that the accu-
mulation of national capital, however impaired by
loans, or retarded by taxes, has, upon the whole,
been large and progressive during that period.
" If in the same space of time the national capital
of some other country has not increased, or has in-
creased only in a much smaller proportion, the mere
comparison of the nominal amount of the public re-
venue of that country with'the public revenue of this
country, as they stood at the commencement of the
period, and as they now stand, might lead to an un-
fair inference in respect to the degree in which each
country has been affected by increased taxation. if
the weight of the public burdens of a country be consi-
dered in reference to its population only, then (with
the exception of Holland, perhaps) England is the
most taxed portion of Europe ; bet if it be measured
by the aggregate of national capital, or income arising
from capital, divided by the total number of people
among whom that capital or income is distributed, it
may then be doubted whether, upon such an average,
the proportion of tax to the income or capital of each
individual, be not less in England than in several
States of the Continent, or even in II eland ; and whe-
ther it be materially greater now than at former pe-
riods, when both the capital, the population, and the
public revenue of England, were far below what they
now are. But whatever might be the consolatory re-
sult of such a comparison, if the means of making it
could be accurately ascertained, and however san-
guine a hope your Committee may entertain, that
peace will afford increased facility and encourage-
ment to further accumulation, it is not less the duty
of Government directly to aid that accumulation, by
diminishing our expenditure, and thus both to im-
prove the comforts and to stimulate the skill and
enterprise of those classes, by whose industry and
savings the capital of the whole kingdom is aug-
mented. This duty, important at all times, appears
to your Committee to be still more so, under the pre-
sent circumstances of the country ; for, whilst they are
desirous of correcting the mistaken opinion, that the
depression under which our Agriculture now labours,
is either exclusively or principally to be attributed to
taxation, they cannot disguise from themselves, that
the .weight of the public burdens of the country, their
nominal amount remaining the same, must be more
severely felt, in proportion as the money-incomes de-
rived from trading, farming, and manufacturing ca-
pital and industry, are diminished. No exertion,
therefore, should be omitted to endeavour to reduce
those burdens, as nearly as circumstances will per-
mit,
in the degree in which such incomes may have
b:en reduced ;'for, in considering this subject, it is,
important to bear in mind, that the general amount
and the real pi essute of taxation have been positively
increased, i'n-the proportion of the improved value of
our currency. • •
Your Committee cannot conclude the observa-
tions which they have found it their duty to submit
tc. the licese, 'without observing that most of the
. •