Part 9

All Slaves for Life, that are between Sixteen and Fifty Years of Age, shall be set at the Price of Eighty Pounds; those under Sixteen, or above Fifty, not to be rated.

All deck'd Vessels that are in Port, shall be set at Five Pounds per Ton; and those not deck'd, at Three Pounds per Ton.

All Trading Stock shall be set at Half the real Value thereof; to which is to be added, what Estate every Man hath, either in Money, Bonds, or other Estate that lies concealed, to be considered as other personal Estate, which the Rate makers shall have Power to require, and take an Account of as visible Estate.

All Lands, Houses, Mills, Wharffs and other real Estates, shall be valued at the Rate of Ten Years, and so considered in the Assessment.

All Males from Sixteen Years old and upwards, shall be stated at One Shilling per Head, for every Thousand Pound Rate assessed by the Colony; and in Proportion for a greater or lesser Sum: In which Assessment upon Poles, shall be included all Servants for Years, of the Age aforesaid.

And be it Enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That the Assessors in all and every Rate, levied as aforesaid, shall consider all Persons who make Profit by their Faculties, and shall rate them accordingly."

In 1747 the poll tax was reduced to nine pence per one thousand pounds of tax levied. As a matter of fact the usual amount of the poll tax, as determined in the various acts ordering the assessment of taxes, was six pence per one thousand pounds.

The digest of 1767, defines somewhat more minutely than before the procedure to be followed by assessors. They were directed to make separate lists, first of the estates, the valuations of which had been handed in by the owners, second of the estates estimated by the assessors, and third of the number of polls.

The amount to be raised on polls was then to be deducted from the total tax and the remainder was to be apportioned among the rateable estates. Even in the case of those who made return of this property, the power of making the final estimate remained with the assessors, subject to an appeal to the next general sessions of the peace for the county. If it appeared that a true list had been handed in the tax payer might recover from the town treasury. The appeal was not to interfere with the process of collection. By act of 1769 all lands or other real estate granted or purchased for religious uses or for schools were exempted from taxation.

It would appear that in the case of leased estates taxes had been assessed on the owner. This had rendered collection difficult, and in 1784 it was provided that in the future the tax should be assessed on the occupant who was to be liable in his real and personal property. If this was not sufficient the real estate occupied was liable.

By the same act assessors were required to distinguish between real and personal estate, and assign a separate column to each in their rate lists.

The law in regard to collection also underwent considerable development. It was about the middle of the century that collectors began to be regularly elected as town officers. A law of February 1755 provided that if a person rated in one town removed to another town without paying his rate, the collector of the town where he was rated might follow him and collect the tax. The difficulty of collecting taxes on the lands of non-residents led to laws which provided that the land itself might be sold for taxes. The general treasurer was first given the power to call special courts for the prosecution of delinquent collectors, and later was authorized to bring actions directly against the town treasurer, who in return might recover from delinquent collectors and their bondsmen. In 1781 the real estate of collectors and their sureties was declared liable for the satisfaction of all judgements secured against them. Warrants for collection were declared to be in force until the tax was collected.. Collectors were empowered to call before them any one who they had reason to believe possessed property of any person who had been rated, but who had left the colony, and compel him to pay the tax of the absent person. In case the person summoned failed to appear and make declaration, he himself was liable to distraint for the amount of the tax. Personal property seized by distraint might be removed, for sale, to any part of the colony.

There were several other general laws of less importance and, besides these, there were certain provisions which were re-enacted with each tax assessment. In this way the towns were required to pay all charges and fees for collection. Interest was charged against the towns in arrears. It was generally provided also that the towns might appoint new assessors for the assessment of each colonial tax, and, in some cases at least, it was customary.

Colonial and State Valuations.

The law of taxation as it appears in general acts has to do principally with questions of administration. What we might call the principle of the tax system was not as a rule embodied in the general law. It was the growth of custom and its existence was assumed in legislative acts. That the state might apportion the taxes among the towns with some degree of justice, it was necessary, however, that it should obtain information in regard to the value of the property existing within its borders. Thus, from time to time, general estimates were taken, and in the acts ordering these estimates we find a more detailed statement of the methods and principles to be followed, together with certain departures from the usual custom which reflect the various phases of economic life in the period to which they refer.

Just what was the basis of apportionment among the towns when taxation was resumed in 1744, we do not know. By act of June 1747 the assessors in each town were required to take an exact account of the rateable estate of all inhabitants on the basis of the act of 1744, and made returns to the next session of the assembly, for use in the apportionment of taxes. A similar valuation was ordered in 1754, and again in 1757. Return was generally made, but they showed only the total valuation of each town as estimated by the assessors, and the assembly made use of no means of verification or revision. Protests against apportionment were frequent. In June 1761 another act was passed for marking a general valuation of the colony. The assessors of each town with two other persons appointed by the assembly did the work. Detailed rules were laid down for their guidance. They were to take account of all "Male Polls of Sixteen years old and upwards, distinguishing such as are exempt from Rates, and of all Rateable Estates lying within said Towns, by whom occupied, and what each Person's Real Estate may rent for by the year, particularly mentioning Land," and the various kinds of structures thereon. The estimate was also to distinguish all negro, Indian, or mulatto servants for life from fourteen to forty-five years of age, the number of tons of vessels upwards of ten tons burthen, each person's whole stock in trade including vessels under ten tons, all goods, merchandize, and money owned by any person or in his hands by "factorage," all wrought plate and money at interest "which any person hath, more than he pays interest for," and all horses and other cattle. The committees were ordered to distinguish the various "Improvements of Land", and to specify in their lists the number of acres of pasture, tillage, orchards, salt marsh, and sedge, fresh meadows, and English mowing land respectively, also the stock each pasture was ordinarily capable of feeding, and what quantity of produce the land yielded on the average. Persons handing in lists of their estates might on oath declare the amount of debts which they owed and deduct the same from their personal estates. The person in possession of an estate was obliged to give an account of the same, and when no one was in possession the committee was to estimate.

The committees were empowered to administer oaths, and if any inhabitant refused to hand in an account of his estate, he was to be "doomed" by the committee and forfeit £30. A committee was appointed to receive the reports of the various town committees, to compare and revise them and thus make a general estimate.

In February, 1762, this committee reported such an estimate. It was adopted by the assembly and declared to be the basis of future apportionments among the towns. The report contained the following estimates: acres of woodland 247,685; value of woodland £4,613,778; amount of live stock £2,835,007; money and trading stock £8,455,428; rents £1,458,748; polls 8,285. On the basis of these estimates the committee reported the following standard for apportionment:

One third part of the woodland £1,537,926-0-0 Total amount of live stock and negroes 2,835,007-0-0 One half the amount of trading stock 4,227,514-0-0 Total amount of rents at twelve years purchase 17,504,976-0-0 ---------------- 26,105,423.

A protest on the part of the country towns signed by twenty members was immediately presented. The grounds of complaint were that the committee had reduced trading stock one half when the act for taking the estimate had already "provided for large deductions," and secondly that twelve years purchase was too high an estimate for land values. Although the estimate of 1762 had been accepted as the legal basis of apportionment, departures were made from it which gave use to more or less weighty protests. In the case of the tax assessed in October, 1765, there was a protest signed by fifteen members which declared the estimate of 1762 to be the only legal rule of apportionment, and that the present departure from it was "altogether arbitrary, unequal and oppressive to particular towns, nor founded on any real knowledge of the circumstances of the people taxes." Providence, Scituate and Cumberland refused to pay the tax. Another protest by the representatives of the same towns was made against the apportionment of the tax in the succeeding year, when the apportionment was declared to be "a high act of arbitrary power and despotism and an exercise of such authority as is utterly inconsistent with a British Constitution." The assembly proceeded against the towns and recovered judgment, but did not venture to put it into execution and finally agreed that the refractory towns should pay their portion of the last two taxes on the basis of the estimate of 1762. The result of this dispute was the general estimate of 1769. The act for taking the estimate was passed in June, 1767. A committee of five (one from each county) were directed to proceed into each town and make the valuations. The principles laid down for the guidance of the committee were much the same as those employed in 1762. Trading stock however was to be estimated at its full value, except vessels at sea and their cargoes which were to be estimated at two thirds of their real value. Negro and other slaves and improved lands were to be estimated at their full value, the value of the lands to be reckoned at twenty years rental. Houses and buildings of all kinds, including those used for manufacturing purposes, were to be estimated at fifteen years rental, horses and other farming stock at full value. Debts might be deducted from the personal estate if the "Committee shall think the same best". The committee were given power to examine on oath and to send for papers and records. If any person refused to testify or give an account of his estate, he was to be taxed two fold in the next colony rate. No colony tax was to be levied until the valuation was made and approved, when it was to be the standard for the apportionment of taxes until a new estimate was taken. A protest was entered signed by eight members asserting that twenty years purchase was an over valuation of land, while fifteen years purchase was no higher than, if indeed it was so high as, the real value of houses and buildings, and that unimproved land as it yielded no profit, should not be taxed. Land holders, it was claimed, would bear a much larger share of the public burdens than in justice they ought in proportion to the merchants and traders.

The report of the committee as at first presented was subjected to careful re-examination and correction. The final result was reported and accepted in February, 1769, and the estimate was declared to be "the Law and Rule for future Taxation." The estimate as adopted contained the following items:

Acres of woodland 241,685-3/4 Value of woodland £236,946-5-6 Rent at 20 and 15 years 1,356,830-16 Sum total of ratables of each town 517,578-9-1 ------------- Total 2,111,356-0-7 Polls 8,952.

Protests against apportionments under the estimate were few. From October, 1774, to March, 1777, no tax was levied. When it was found necessary to resume taxation a committee was appointed to consider the changes which had occurred in each town since 1769, and agree upon a new basis of apportionment. The committee completed its work in one day, and made a report containing an estimate which was accepted as a temporary standard. The total valuation of the new estimate was only a few pounds greater than that of eight years before. The island towns, then in possession of the enemy, were relieved at the expense of the main land, the most important change being the removal of £100,000 from the valuation of Newport and the placing of it on Providence, increasing the valuation of the latter town by nearly eighty per cent. Providence, in its desire to further the resumption of taxation, accepted this large addition, but only on condition that it should not become a precedent. The General Assembly however showed no desire to take a new estimate and continued to apportion taxes in accordance with the estimate of March, 1777.

Providence, beginning to feel the burdens of the war in the stoppage of its commerce and the demands of military service, protested and refused to pay its tax as it had done ten years before. The assembly reduced the valuation of Providence first by £25,000, then by £50,000, and in October, 1778, passed an act for taking a new estimate. As in 1769, a committee of five was appointed and was directed to proceed into each town and take account of ratable estates and all male polls of twenty-one years and upwards, except ministers of the gospel and officers and soldiers in the army and naval service. The principles on which the estimate was to be taken varied but little from those laid down for the estimate of 1769. All the property enumerated was to be appraised at its full value, "whether the said rateable Property be removed without the limits of the state of not." The committee as before were empowered, if they thought best, to deduct debts from personal estate. No report was made until July, 1780. The committee had visited each town "and with great care, and as much precision as possible, have endeavored to obtain an exact account of the real value of this state." The report was accepted and the estimate declared to be the legal basis of apportionment. The total valuation was £2,778,145-10-0. In September several towns complained that the estimate was erroneous, and a committee was appointed to revise it. This committee reported in November having increased the total valuation about £10,000, and made considerable alterations in the relative portions of the towns. This report was submitted to still another revision, the final report however being presented at the same session. The total remained unchanged and the changes made in proportions assigned to the towns were, for the most part, not important. This last report gives merely the total valuations of the towns, but the earlier report of the November session comprises the following headings:

Number of acres 518,112-3/4 Price per acre £2-5s. to £70-10s-6d. Value of real estate 2,788,145-10s.

In none of these estimates were the island towns included. A valuation of these towns, in accordance with the act of 1778, was ordered in June, 1783, and completed in October of the same year. It showed a total of £502,227-5-0 which, added to the valuation of the mainland towns in 1780, gave a total valuation for the state of £3,290,372-15-0. This was the last general estimate made before the adoption of the constitution of the United States.

The first point which we notice in these valuations is the prominent part played by the poll tax. On the basis of the estimate of 1762, and a poll tax of six pence per one thousand pounds, the poll tax supplied 20.7 per cent of all receipts from taxes. In 1769, the proportion was 22.2 per cent. This proportion increased of course with the growth of population, and by 1774, must have amounted to 24 per cent, but the diminution of the taxable population during the war brought it down again to 22 per cent in 1780. As to the proportions in which personal and real estate entered into the valuation, personal estate formed about one third of the total in 1762, and about one fourth in 1769, while, owing to the destruction of personal property during the war, it had sunk to about one-eighth in 1780. In all these estimates there is a tendency to favor personalty, as represented in the growing commercial interests, at the expense of the proprietors of land. In 1762, money and trading stock was valued at only one half of its true value, and in 1769, land was valued at twenty years rental which must certainly have been a high valuation.

A comparison of the proportions in which the various towns contributed to the various taxes is instructive. The figures following refer to the estimate of 1769. The whole number of towns was twenty-eight. Eleven towns paid a larger proportion of the total property tax than of the total poll tax, showing they contained more than their proportionate share of wealth. As a whole they comprised the territory which borders on Narragansett Bay, and which had been long settled. Together they contained 40.32 per cent of the rateable polls, and 56.10 per cent of the property in the colony. The most important towns among them were Newport, which contained 12.44 per cent of the polls, and 15.6 per cent of the property; Providence which contained 5.06 per cent of the polls and 5.94 per cent of the property, and South Kingstown which contained 4.78 per cent of the polls and 9.3 per cent of the property. As a rule these were also the towns which contained the largest proportions of personal property.