CONTENTS. CHAP. I. On the sources whence the public revenue of the United Kingdom, arising from taxes, is derived. II. On the incidence of the taxation of the United Kingdom. III. On the effects produced on the social Digression on the fallacy or delusion PAGE 1 21 43 is called a favourable balance. III. Continuation. 69 98 CONTENTS. CHAP. IV. Of general rules and principles to be considered on the imposition of taxes PAGE 170 200 CHAPTER III. Of the effects produced on the social condition of the people of the United Kingdom by the selection of subjects of taxation. In the progress of a rude or barbarous people to a state of civilization, agriculture naturally and necessarily is the first step. By the advancement and improvement of agriculture, birth is given to the arts of life and the division of labour-to the artists in raiment first, and then to the artisans and handicraftsmen who minister to agriculture. All the labourers other than those engaged in agriculture-for the common convenience of themselves and the advancing societycongregate in localities in the various districts of the country, marked out by rivers, hills, or other natural boundaries; and form the hamlet, the village, and the town-to the occupants of which the agriculturists bring the productions of the land, in exchange for the productions of manufacture, handicraft, or art; and trade grows and is established. Next comes the accumulation of capital-of stocks or stores of the productions of land in the G rural districts, and of manufactured commodities in towns-kept ready prepared to meet promptly all demands for the same, by wholesale or retail. When by industry and economy, "the handmaids of fortune," accumulation is made of such productions and commodities, beyond what is requisite for the supply of the wants and effectual demands of the people-vent is sought for the surplus, among other nations, by exchanging with them such surplus, for the surplus productions of their soil and industry. Thus foreign trade begins to grow and is established. But it is, of course, the surplus only of productions or commodities, beyond what is wanted by the people for their own use, which is exported from any country to foreign parts. For the convenience of such foreign trade, sea-ports spring up on the banks of navigable rivers; to afford harbour for ships, with docks, quays, and warehouses, to facilitate the exportation and importation of, and for storing up, in transitu from the producers to the consumers at home and abroad, the surplus productions of their several countries. Foreign trade soon gives rise to new and more extensive divisions of labour-to the calling of the merchant, the factor, the warehouse-man, the ship-builder, the ship-owner, and the many artisans and handicraftsmen who minister to those engaged in the trades carried on in sea-port places or towns. Merchants and traders, and their dependents, the inhabitants of sea-ports, from their intercourse and connexion with foreigners, (upon whom, as much as upon their own countrymen, they depend for the continuance of their trades that is to say, of their livelihood,) become a class, or caste, distinct from the rest of the community dwelling in inland villages and towns, occupied in domestic trade and little affected by foreign connexions or influences. The sea-ports of most continental countries, which, usually, present only one line of coast to the sea, are necessarily few, compared in number with their inland cities and towns. Even in the United Kingdom-the insular form of which appears to offer so many points of short and easy ingress from the coast into the interior of the country-the sea-ports are, comparatively with its inland cities and towns, exceedingly few in number; the larger rivers only being navigable for ships of great burthen, which are best adapted for trade with countries beyond great seas. London, Liverpool, Bristol, and Hull, in England-and Glasgow, Leith, and Aberdeen, in Scotland-engross almost the whole foreign trade of the United Kingdom; for Ire |