PROPOSAL FOR A PROPERTY-TAX, AND A REPEAL OF THE DUTIES
ON TRADE.
WE again return to this important measure, to press its adoption upon the Government and the Public. The discreditable failure of the Budget, the insufficiency 'of the relief it afforded, and the miserable shifts to which a Ministry with the best intentions was • reduced, 'sufficieatly proie the imperious necessity of some measure by which the burdens of the people and the embarrassments of the Government may be 'relieved. To 'effect this to any extent, can only 'be done by a graduated tax on Property and Income ; leaving the lower incomes (say below 1001. per annum) untouched; pressing comparatively lightly • upon those between 1001. and 10001. a year, and then rising on a graduated scale, till it falls heavily (say up to 20 per cent.) on those enormous revenues, whose possessors may be irritated, but can scarcely be injured; let the Government demand whatever it may. We would•espe- cially select persons whose incomes are derived from the pub- lic without their rendering a full equivalent, or which are pos- sessed in defiance of ,justice, and by evasion of law,—such as sine- curists, pensioners for no service, pluralists and non-residents, where the livings are above a certain value, as well as the higher order of dignified churchmen. We lately estimated the produce of such a tax at nine millions. We think a, searching tax—such a measure as the Government who proposed and wilt carry the Reform question, ought to bring forward, both for the interests of the country and its own fame— would produce more.: We are, howeVer, willing to take it at this amount. If the Ministry Would do an act of financial justice, and • subject real property to the same legacy-duty as personal, if they could be persuaded to revise their estimates, to exercise a rigid system of supervisal over the various departments—such a super- visal as the prudent head Of an extensive firm would adopt,—above all,' if • they would 'reduce the expensewithout diminishing the strength of our warlike establishments, a further sum of three, most probably of four millions, would be obtained ; especially looking at the saving that would take place in the expense of -col- lecting the revenue by the proposal we are about to make. This is, to sweep away' the whole of the duties upon manu- factures and raw 'materials+ used in manufacture. This would be a direct relief to the extent of about eight millions (in round numbers) ; but the benefit it would produce to the dealer, the labbfirer, and the -consumer, can scarcely be Measured. The in- jury these duties do (by enhancing prices) both to navigation and commerce, have been before pointed out; the beggarly sums that some of the items produce can be readily seen in Sir HENRY PAR-. NELL'S Financial Rehm ; and the folly of paying a tax to-day, to draw it back to-morrow, with all its concomitants of fraud and trickery, can be imagined. BUt it is out of the power of those who have no practical acquaintance with the subject, to conceive the trouble and inconvenience they create—the checks they place upon industry and labour—the obstacles they throw in the way of improvement and enterprise—the shifts and expedients to which some of them give rise. Take an instance where the impost is not nominally very heavy, nor the Excise regulations very troublesome.
Upon paper-hangings used for papering houses, a duty is ,charged of about IA d.: per yard, payable without any reference • SPECTATOR, No. 136. We proposed that income should be assessed at 5-7'l- 10 per cent. on 2501.-5061.-7.501. property at 71,-10,-121 per cent. This, perhaps, might be modified to 21 per cent. on one, to 4 per cent. on the other, up to 5001. ; property under 10001. paying 6, and income 4 per cent., after which the difference should be 21 per cent. As we intimate hereafter, a low rate of income-tax on small re. venues is more than returned to its possessor, is diminished prices. The above calcula- tion may seem perhaps too high a rate of produce. We doubt it. We are certain 'the second is too low. Sir HENRY PARNELL seems to consider the Army, Navy, and Ordnance alone capable of a reduction to the amount of nearly five millions, in the non-effective expenditure ; and this was before the late increase. t These embrace glass, paper, printed goods (such as calicoes, paper-hangings, &c.), tallow, timber, coals, slates, bricks, tiles, soap, hides, hemps, raw and thrown silk, drugs, colours, and an infinite variety of articles, "whose names were long to tell" down even to parchment and such like articles, which sometimes produce 104. per annum, or even less.- * The amount is ltd. per square yard. Owing to a very general opinion in the trade that the Excise restricts them in the breadth of their paper, all patterns, no matter of what description or for what rooms, are made 21 inches wide, and a piece (12 yards long) contains 7 yards square. From this idea, which we believe to be erroneous, and which, doubtless, bad its origin in the dicta of some excisemen
anxious not to be "put out of their way," a shrewd guess may be given of the de-
to their priCe. . Upon the 'cheapest sorts, this impo§t amounts to ' about forty per Cent.; gradually deereasirig as the prices of the article rise, till it sinks to two and a half per cent.;•or even less: Thus, a paper which sells at 4d. per.ym`d; might be sold for lid., or 2d. at the most, if the duties both' upbrillie staining' and • making the-paper, and upon the :colours; &c. used in the menthe- turd were repealed, the domiciliary visits of the exciseman • lished,.and all the trouble and expenseS.CenSequent.upon both at ' an end. The increased demand may be guessed from the extent to which colouririg and stencilling§ are carried.' Id the upper rooms of many houses,' in all the apartments of the humbler class, and in most houses built upon speculation, one of these ' plans is adopted to save expense. The repeal of the virtual restrictions upon this trade would, however, extend much further than the trade itself. The papermaker, the-paperhanger, the blockeutter, the toolmaker; the •colourman, &c. would be benefited by its ex- tension ; not to mentiouthat it might be carried on with much less capital,—heavy duties acting, in some sense, to produce a monopoly in favour of wealth., It should not be forgotten, that while these taxes nearly double the burden to the humble consumer, they affect the very rich—the lawmakers—thapurchasers whbare few in number—to the extent of about a twentieth or thirtieth part, and sometimes much less. Illustrious nominees ! young gen- tlemen of talent !—is this ignoranee, or worse ? But to return to our figures.. A balance of four millions would remain to us alter repealing the duties pressing on trade. With this sum we should recommend the repeal of the window-duty, and the reduction of the taxes on tea, sugar, and "tobacco, on the same scale as we formerly proposed.II Should-any of our readers agree with Sir HENRY PARNELL, and deem that the tea-dutV had better remain as it is, till the monopoly of the East India -Com- pany is settled, the 800,0001. can be applied to reducing the im- posts on hops, coffee, a greater reduction on tobacco (to prevent smuggling), or any other articles that may appear desirable. Afttr the best consideration we can give the subject, we should prefer retaining the house-duty. It has already fallen upon the land- lord ; the property-tax must of necessity fall upon him also (the practical inconvenience and the heartburnings between tenant and tenant—next-door neighbours chargeable with a different rate of duty, not because of their own property, but because of their land- lord's—would otherwise be so great) ; and the window-duty would relieve the tenant to a considerable degree. The malt-duties will of course be revised—the duties on spirits more nearly. equalized, with the .exception of brandy, which should be lowered, to lessen the smuggler's bounty—and, perhapS, the duties on wines—certainly the stamps on newspapers considered with a view to a greater reduction. If this measure, or one closely resembling it (for we are not ab- solutely Wedded to our details), were brought forward; the bene- fits would be incalculable. By increasing the employment of capital.; it Woilld rase the demand for labour, and increase con- sumption to a great extent. Nor is this all. The excise-duties upon what are termed luxuries, although in reality many have be- come necessaries, would increase with the increasing prosperity of the humbler classes,-and raise the revenue in proportion; and we doubt not, in a few years there would be a surplus revenue, to apply either in the reduction of-other taxes, or in a useful endea- vour to extinguish the debt. We calculate of course that a Re- form2d Parliament will eventually puSh retrenchment in the Army, Navy, and Civil departments, much farther than we have esti- mated—probably to the extent of five millions, instead of our three. A.word or two remains to be said on the only apparent objec- tions of the leading Ministers themselves to this measure,—that " it is a war-tax ;" and that " a direct tax on funded property would tend more than any thing else to drive capital out of the country." To the first, it has been aptly replied, that it matters not whether a tax be a war tax or a peace-tax, provided it be a proper one. The latter is well met in a pamphlet before us.J The author justly observes, that "the funded debt of every country represents, generally speaking, the inert capital of that country—capital for which the channels of trade afford no healthy occupation, and the withdrawal of which would consequently not affect the pro§petity - of the country." This withdrawal, however, is not likely to take place to any extent, on account of the depreciation the English Funds would suffer in proportion " to the amount of them offered for sale," and the consequent rise in the price of Foreign Funds, even if the state of affairs abroad were likely to tempt capitalists. It may be questioned, moreover, whether removal would be either convenient or practicable. Though the stockholder be, in Lord BROUGHAM'S words, "a man of no country—here to-day, and there to-morrow," he is rarely a man without connexions, houses, lightful results which take place when Government condescends to prescribe the manner in which even the minutest processes of a trade shall be carried on. It is hardly necessary to say that we speak of retail prices in the text, and those not- advertising prices. A coarse mode of staining upon the wall itself, by means of a colouring-brush -and a pasteboard pattern, and upon which no duty is or can be charged. It is neither so neat nor so durable as paper, and occupies little more time than putting up the latter. We repeat the particulars.—
Loss to Revenue. Saving to Consumer.
Windows £1,150,000 t'l,150,000 Repealed. Tea " 800,000 I,924. t,000 Reduced.
1,350,000 3 240.000 —
Tobacco 550,000 1,320,000 3.950,000 The Expediency of a Property-Tax Considered in relation to the Objections of Earl Grey and Lord Brougham. Published by Westley.
and goods. There exists the greatest repugnance to quit the former ; and to dispose of the latter, when many are anxious to sell, is no trifling difficulty, unless it be done at an enormous sacrifice. The pressure upon revenue, too, would be more nomi- nal than real. Its possessors would, in common with the rest of the community, reap all the advantages consequent upon the remission of the taxes on price.
It may be argued, this is too soon to press these questions. We answer, No. The nation is enthusiastic and devoted ; the Ministry strong in anticipated victory, and in the reputation of talent and honesty ; whilst their enemies are dispirited and "out , of heart.' It is but right, too, that the times which witness the downfall of the Oligarchy, should witness the downfall of their favourite mode of taxing others, and escaping themselves.
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