Part 9

What I have just said, will, I think, suffice to refute the extravagant pretensions which Mr. Hume is pleased to suppose in the lender. What I shall add, will also be sufficient, I hope, to quiet the scrupulous minds of those who might entertain some doubts on the injustice of despoiling the landed proprietor; I mean, the injustice of any kind of spoliation, but that which may be the consequence of his own extravagance.

That man who gives up his land for the annual quit-rent of a quarter of wheat, and two shillings when the wheat was at four shillings only, supposed he had entitled himself and his heirs to an income of a quarter and a half of wheat; yet his representatives enjoy, at this day, only one quarter, and the 18th or 20th part of another.—Will these insist, that the meaning of the landlord having been to secure, and that of the tenant to grant, such a portion of the landed revenue, as might be at all times equal to a quarter and a half of wheat, it is unjust to act in direct opposition to the intention of the contracting parties? This objection would appear very forcible, and yet would go no further than to prove, that, when a proprietor gives up his land for an annual consideration, he ought to stipulate that it should be paid in kind, if he means to keep up to the same income; if not, the landlord must be referred to the terms of his contract.

The state-creditor stands in a far more disagreeable predicament; he cannot even suppose, on his part, an intention hostile to the general good. Whoever lends to the State, knows that the latter cannot pay the interest it submits to, but by taxes, which, in the long-run, affect every thing alike; and that one must cease to be a consumer, if he would forbear coming in for his share. Now, whilst the exigency of the State requires fresh loans, and course additional taxes, whoever advances of the stock, the interest of which is paid by means of those very taxes, cannot entertain any hopes of avoiding their effect, unless it be for a short period, which depends entirely on the adopted scheme of finance. Some of these schemes extend, others shorten the round such taxes must go through, before the burden falls equally on every shoulder, and becomes null by its universality. I say null, all injustice set aside, which is inseparable from some sorts of taxes, of which I shall speak hereafter; but, I add, strictly null, even in regard to the lender, although the price of every article be raised, whilst his revenue alone continues on the same standard. And I ground my opinion on the following reason, which appears to me unanswerable: The difference between the interest of money, and that of landed property, is always a sufficient indemnity to the monied man for the rise, occasioned by the taxes, on the prices of the produce of land and industry; but nothing can compensate the landed proprietor for that pretended increase of wealth called Money, or that supposed poverty known by the name of Taxes, but a proportionable increase in the price of his goods. A word more on the lender. One may take the part of that important individual, who accumulates those savings by which the State is to profit. It is allowed, I say, to support such a man even against the State, when the State attempts to reduce him by an useless reimbursement, by an unnatural operation; but he should be assigned his real rank in the State, that he may not complain of the natural reductions. In this case, I think, we should be more just, more humane, and more equitable, than Mr. Hume, when, in the continuation of the scheme of national loans, he offers to the posterity of the present owners of landed estates, no other prospect than that of serving, as coachmen, the descendents of their footmen, and no other means of averting the prophecy—but a bankruptcy. (Vide Hume’s Public Credit, Essay IX.)

Reflections on the two foregoing Articles.

If it were very true, though upon the first blush rather strange, that after an operation so simple as that of increasing the price of the whole mass of commodities, or rather suffering it naturally to increase, in proportion as the taxes and the effects produced by them enhance the price of all the products of industry, which are to bear those taxes—were it true, I say, that after so plain, so simple an operation, it would suffice, in order to secure for ever, in the most efficacious manner, the payment of the interest on any given national debt whatever, to find, once for all, in cash and paper, a sum which would exactly be, to the mass of the specie and paper already in circulation, as the interest of the debt, and the reactions of which I shall speak in the sequel, are to the mass of the two revenues—were it equally true, that those who are to be paid that interest, should, after these two previous data, have nothing in the world to dread but the reimbursement of a principal, the interest of which should appear so oddly secured, it would then be impossible not to confess, that England has hitherto been a prey to great uneasiness, with very little foundation.

It would then be necessary to conclude, that all other nations were greatly in the wrong to think that England had any reason to be alarmed.

It must, in this case also, be acknowledged, that France, in 1720, very unreasonably cut asunder the Gordian knot of her difficulties, by declaring in substance that she owed no longer 15 millions Tournois of the debts which she had contracted; since, without so barbarously cutting the knot, and thereby effecting the ruin of thousands of wretched beings, she would have secured their fortune by imposing without mercy, or rather with judgement, a tax of 75 millions on all the produce of industry, which this tax would not have raised by one twentieth part; whilst an Arrêt from the council, permitting then the exportation of grain, which was not allowed till 50 years after, would have proved more than sufficient to enhance, as it must have done, the price of commodities, in order to make amends to the landed proprietors for the increase which they would have found in the products of industry.

Above all, it would be necessary to admit, that no minister, in any country, could, for the future, without a horrid perverseness, without a want of judgement bordering upon insanity, propose, neither all together nor separately, expedients as shameful as they would prove useless; and that no individual could hereafter dread such measures, without being guilty of folly. What a security, then, for the Subject! what an advantage to the State! what a facility for Administration!

Under this point of view, the idea I start deserves to be examined; but I once more entreat the reader not to pronounce finally upon it, until it has undergone the full exposition which I propose to give it. Nor shall I think I have written in vain, if I succeed only in making it appear so feasible, as to induce some abler hand more deeply to investigate it. Where is the man who would not wish to find it true? where is the man who could have an interest in finding it otherwise? I confess, perhaps to my shame, that it has engrossed my attention for a long series of years; I apply it to every thing, I square it with every thing; and the more I consider it under all the suppositions which my fancy suggests, the more I compare these suppositions with all the facts which it is possible to ascertain, and which seem to bear any relation to the subject, the more am I convinced, not only that the matter stands thus, but even that it is impossible it should be otherwise.

In fact, if I return to Great-Britain⸺

It would be absurd to suppose, that the taxes necessary to discharge the debt incurred during the late war, exceed the twentieth part of the value of the products both of foreign and national industry, consumed within the country. In this case, is it not impossible that the additional tax of a twentieth, in whatever manner it may be assessed on the mass of those products, should not enhance, by a twentieth, the value of this very mass? Let us call it a fifteenth; all kind of reaction included.

Is it not impossible that this additional fifteenth on the price of the products of industry, be not followed, sooner or later, by an equal augmentation on the productions of the earth, unless the proprietors of land should submit to diminish, by one fifteenth, their own consumption,—the home consumption (the only one that secures the prosperity of the State) and diminish it, in order to increase, by so much, the exportation, according to the ideas commonly adopted which would be as contrary to the facts that I shall adduce hereafter, as it would prove hostile to the interest of the State, to the interest of the proprietors, and would operate in direct opposition to the spirit of the tax, which is certainly to produce its own amount, without taking the trouble, every year, of going in search of it to ~Lisbon~.

Is it not impossible that the augmentation of one fifteenth, upon the price of every produce in circulation, should require any thing above an additional fifteenth, in the sums which had been hitherto sufficient for brokerage, and the transports of all kinds of property?

Is it not impossible that this fifteenth, both in new specie and paper currency, once obtained, the interest of the latter part of the debt should not be very firmly established, funded, without any one being the worse for it, if the price of labour increases like that of its produce?

Such, I repeat it, such will be, in the last analysis, the result of the underworkings of nature; of nature, ever more slow, but ever more skilful in repairing evil than men are in creating it; of nature, who, as good at all times as the bread which she breaks to her children, fills up without intermission, incessantly levels, behind them, and unknown to them, whilst they are amusing themselves or playing tricks upon each other, all those little furrows which they imagine will be left to the care of their posterity.

Some one, no doubt, will exclaim against this additional fifteenth upon the prices of every commodity; an augmentation which I have represented as the only remaining trace of a war, which, for five years, attracted in both hemispheres, the eyes of all whose brains were not heated by it. I shall grant therefore that it was necessary to add thereto,

First, the trifling difference which must result from the impossibility of a thorough good understanding between the interested parties, together with the intention, not very liberal, but natural enough to each of them, of gaining more than they can lose.

Secondly, the difference, perhaps more sensible, which must follow the method so much boasted, of taxing in preference, those objects which are consumed by the rich; as if it were possible to apply to any object, an extraordinary portion of a given revenue, without taking off that very portion from some other article, the consumption of which is equally necessary to the subsistence of artizans of another kind.

Thirdly, and in fine, the far more considerable difference which must be produced, especially in England, by another kind of taxation, of which I shall speak hereafter.

Nothing contributes so much to render a question undeterminable, as to perplex it with a multitude of accessaries, each of which would require a separate dissertation; consequently, nothing can render the solution easier than to reduce it to the smallest compass. Some other person will, no doubt, do much better, what I can do only according to the extent of my abilities; nor did ever an author peruse his own work with more pleasure than I shall read the production of any one who shall throw the light of evidence where I can only form surmises. But if it be true, that after a short space of time, without any other assistance than the natural clashing of one interest with another, taxes, judiciously laid, are hurtful neither to individuals nor to the State,—would it not be better to labour with care to lay them judiciously, than to think of a reimbursement, the only effect of which will be to diminish, for a short time, amongst some individuals, the power of paying those very taxes?

I beg permission to add a word more on this fatal reimbursement.

A Thought substituted to that of a Reimbursement.

To write in England, nay, to write with obstinacy against the plan of a reimbursement, the necessity of which is acknowledged by the whole nation, who expect wonders from its execution; to write for the purpose of persuading that such a step would equally militate against the interest of the State, and that of the subject; and especially to hazard such visionary ideas at the moment when France, so clear-sighted on her own interests, is herself busy in effecting a like reimbursement ... must surely be the attempt of a man hired by the French, to excite, if possible, some ferment in those heads which are all wound up to calculation; and to raise, during the little time the calculations will require, some plausible doubts, in order at least to delay the effect, of so salutary, so essential an operation; for, France is so interested in the ruin of England, that she ought to spare no means to stop her, were it but for an instant, at that point which it has not been possible to prevent her from attaining.

On the other hand, to write in French, and endeavour to introduce into France, a pamphlet in which the author does not profess himself an admirer of a reimbursement, the possibility of which, now clearly demonstrated, has excited there a general enthusiasm, a kind of rapture the more excusable, as the most evident disorder in all parts of the finances, during the space of 80 years, did not permit even the humane and sensible mind to form a single wish for that very measure of which the execution is so certain, and the advantages pretended to be so positive.... It is suing with impudence for the good graces of a nation, to which I have, as it were, been turned over by the cession made to it of the country where my fortune lies: it is ridiculously flattering myself that I shall justify by a trait of unbridled licence, the title of Englishman, conferred on me by the treaty of peace.

It is certain, that more than once a man has been most secretly accused, tried with the greatest expedition, condemned without being heard, and punished with merciless severity, in consequence of charges much less specious than the above; for I confess that there is a faint glimmer of plausibility in the heads of accusation which I have brought. But, in the end, justice must be done; and, thank heaven, my present trial is on the very first instance, brought to its last stage; the public shall be my judge; they shall be put in possession of all the documents relating to the trial; and I presume to hope, that no one of those who shall be able to bear the perusal of them, will suspect my sincerity when I protest, that, without any other motive but that which has at all times invariably guided me through life, I would burn this paper, if I could find therein a single word that might be hurtful to France—I would burn it, were I to find therein a single word that might be hurtful to England—I would burn it, were I to find therein a single word that might give offence to any individual of either of the two kingdoms.—But I freely own, that my ambition would be far from receiving its full gratification, were this work to prove useful only to those two parts of the world, however brilliant the part they act therein.—URBI ET ORBI.—Shakespear says that the Warrior seeks “the bubble glory in the cannon’s mouth:” a man who presumes to think, looks for it in the bottom of his inkstand: their hope is not always crowned with success; nay, very often, the one meets only death, and the other contempt. Yet there are some lucky chances: sometimes the former saves his country, the latter is sometimes serviceable to all mankind.

Be it as it may, I intreat the reader to observe, that the principles I lay down do not tend, by any means, to lessen the public credit, to spread any doubt on the faculties which France and England have of effecting the reimbursement which both these nations have in contemplation; I maintain, on the contrary, with the simplicity of a child, that it is a childish play, for the one as well as for the other. I say, that the one who appears the most distressed of the two, and is the most taken up with her pretended distress, has only to take from the pocket of one, what he will be very averse to give, and put it into the hands of another, who will be equally averse to receive. I say, with respect to the nation, which now acts the most brilliant part, that all she has to do, is to give, to those who do not ask for it, a sum of money which she receives, and has no occasion for; to give it, I say, for fear of being solicited, importuned, and teazed, to make a bad use of it, or else be obliged to hoard it up, to the very great detriment of circulation. I shall add now, that a business, which to me, does not appear a childish one, but really that of a man, would be to examine, whether the 40 or 50 millions of livres annuity, which are about to expire by degrees in France, and the million, or million and half sterling of taxes to be levied in England, over and above the sum necessary to pay the interest of the national debt, and other state expenditures, will be better employed in the diminution of some private revenue than in the increase of the general wealth in both States; that is to say, whether it is most advantageous to pay off the creditors, who, by such a reimbursement, will be compelled to place at 4 and at 3, what brought them in 5 and 4 per cent. than to lay out the money, for the purpose of increasing, perhaps by one fourth, the products of agriculture and industry, by a faithful and judicious repartition of those sums upon the cultivation of some millions of acres, which now yield nothing but brambles, or yield only the half of what they ought to produce.—How many of this description are to be found both in England and France!⸺This is not all: how many kinds of taxes, the effects of which have not been sufficiently searched into! How many more, whose pernicious consequences are fully known! How many more, the levying of which can be justified only by reason of their produce being wanted, or by the supposed impossibility of a commutation!—Ought the State to reimburse, before those have been scrutinized, these repealed, and all commuted which shall appear evidently to militate against sound principles?

The great art does not consist in finding, at pleasure, one million sterling more in France as well as in England, or vice versâ. Heavens! what kind of minister would that man be, whose genius could not discover, in either kingdom, in the multitude of objects truly susceptible of taxation, a number of articles capable of furnishing that million annually, without injuring the general consumption, beyond the first year at the worst? The only difference which, in this respect, I might point out between the two nations, is, that in France the impost would be registered, and paid after the usual remonstrances; and that in England, were the tax to have been devised, even by Supreme Wisdom, on the actual system, all those who might think themselves directly or indirectly interested in the operation of the tax, would not fail to clamour as loud as possible, and not without reason; for, after all, if the objects taxed, are equitably taxed, and in a due proportion with all the rest, why, out of 160 objects and upwards, already charged with equity, should ten be picked out to be overloaded with a new burden?—Has at least a rotation been established for the future?—On what principles? Or does it evidently appear that there can be no fixed one adopted on so important a matter?—If a tax is offered to be laid on such articles as have paid none hitherto, then Opposition stands on firmer ground; for, are not those objects, by their nature, evidently as sacred as the ark of the Lord? Did ever the least scrupulous, the boldest Minister of the finances, dare, to this day, to lay his hand upon it?—Would he have respected it, if he had not trembled for his head; that is, in plain English, for his place? For, thank Heaven, there is no necessity, now, for the English to be more hot-headed than any other nation in Europe. It is generally acknowledged among themselves, with true English sang-froid, that, on the part of those champions of patriotism, who, according to the interest of the day, charge each other by turns with selling the people, and betraying the SACRED constitution, all terminates now in the most exact change of admirable sarcasms, and exquisite railleries. The pleasure of being a Minister because the minister alone can do what is good, and the concern at not being a Minister, because the minister alone can do what is good, are now productive of nothing more in England; and the People, as well as the King, are not worse served for it, nor are they worse informed: witness the speeches on both sides.

Amongst the questions which I have mentioned, and many others always appropriated to the subject, there are some sufficiently weighty to puzzle, in England as well as in France, the respondent who should be obliged, before a tax is laid, to answer them in a satisfactory manner. Luckily, as I have already mentioned, in France, thanks to the monarchical constitution, the King commands, the Parliament remonstrates, registers, and the People pay: and, as is known to all the world, thanks to the free constitution of England, there the King demands, the parliament debates, grants, and the People pay. With that facility which exists every where, of doing what is not palpably absurd, I think it might be possible now, without bringing credit or authority in question, to renounce the little vanity of devising a productive tax; and that a man of common abilities ought to confine himself to the establishing or maintaining order and clearness in the accounts, to the diminution of expences in collecting the revenues, and to fidelity in the use of them.—But the true, the unacquired glory to be obtained by a financier, would be, I think, to hit upon a simple scheme, the application of which might be obvious in all cases, a scheme productive of no fruitless evil, permitting all possible good, and which might, by degrees, be substituted to those vague taxations, to those taxations founded on false principles, to those wild notions, which, by adding five to an article not worth three, raise nevertheless that object to eight, and leave the trader at liberty to sell that for fifteen, which he sold formerly at four. It is true that, on the first exigency of the State, they pretend to remedy the abuse by an additional tax called licence, or by any other name which answers the same purpose, and compels the peculator to refund part of his extortion. But what does this licence come to, after all?—To sell to a man the right of ransoming more severely the public, after having previously furnished him with the means and pretence for doing it.