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CHAP. 5.

ductive powers of the soil are the joint property of BOOK II. the community; and hence are a fund peculiarly adapted to the joint or common purposes and demands. If the whole of what is strictly rent were taken away, the application of labour and capital to the land would resemble the application of labour and capital to wood or iron; and the same principles, in both cases, would determine their reward.

But as the expense required for the services of government exceeds not a very small portion of the rent of the land, unless where the quantity is very minute, the greatest possible benefit is derived from

rent.

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inquiring what ownership the sovereign has, provided the usufruct of the ryot is well defined and secured. (Ib. 831.) See Hodgson again to the same effect. (Ib. p. 926.) We are informed by Mr. Park, that in Africa, when a permission to cultivate a spot of ground has been granted by the sovereign, it is not resumed, while the revenue or rent is paid. (Travels, p. 261.) In China, Mr. Barrow assures us, that the cultivator, though in reality a tenant at will, is never dispossessed, but when he fails to discharge the stated engagements. "So accustomed," he adds, are the Chinese to consider an estate as their own, while they continue to pay the rent, that a Portuguese in Macao had nearly lost his life for endeavouring to raise the rent upon his Chinese tenants. (Travels in China, p. 397.) Dr. Buchanan says, "The ryots or farmers have no property in the ground; but it is not usual to turn any man away, so long as he pays the customary Even in the reign of Tippoo, such an act would have been looked upon as an astonishing grievance." (Journey through Mysore, &c., i. 124.) “The genius and tendency of all Hindu institutions is, to render offices, as well as property, hereditary." (Wilks's Hist. Sketches, p. 231.) 'The king is the general heir of all his subjects; but when there are children to inherit, they are seldom deprived of their father's estate." (Dow's Hindostan, pref. p. xiii.) Η χωρα της πολεως· αλλ' ουδεν ἧττον κεκτημένων έκαστος κύριος εστι των ἑαυτου. (Dio Chrysostom. Orat. 31. in Rhodiac.) Anquetil Duperron was the first of the Europeans who maintained that the ownership of the land was vested in the ryots. He has written a discourse upon the subject, in his work entitled, Recherches Historiques et Géographiques sur l'Inde. He proves what is now acknowledged, that a man might dispose of his farm, and was seldom turned out of it, while he continued to pay his taxes or rent. There is a learned and able chapter, in support of the same opinion, in " Historical Sketches of the South of India, by Col. Wilks."

των

CHAP. 5.

BOOK II. the productive powers of the soil, when it is the property of individuals. The benefits of the soil have, accordingly, over the greater part of the globe, been employed, first, to supply in whole, or for the greater part, the necessities of government, next to enrich the individual occupant. The most remarkable exception to this rule is in modern Europe. After the conquests of the Gothic nations, the land was thrown in great portions into the hands of the leading men and they had power to make the taxes fall where they chose; they took care accordingly that they should fall any where rather than upon the land; that is, upon any body rather than themselves. Further, as their influence over the sovereign made him glad to share with them what he derived from the taxes, they not only threw the burden off their own shoulders, but taxed, as they have continued to do, and sometimes in a progressive ratio, to the present hour, the rest of the community for their benefit.

The objections to the Hindu system of providing for the expenses of government, arise rather from the mode, than the essence.

By aiming at the receipt of a prescribed portion of the crop of each year; and with a very imperfect distinction of the lands of different powers, the Hindus incurred most of the evils which a bad method of raising a tax is liable to produce. They rendered the amount of the tax always uncertain, and its pressure very unequal; they rendered necessary a perfect host of tax-gatherers; and opened a boundless inlet to partiality and oppression on the one hand; to fraud and mendacity on the other.

СНАР. 5.

A tax consisting of any portion of the gross produce BOOK II. of the soil, raises the price of that produce; because the tax raised from the poorest of the cultivated land must be returned, along with the expense of cultivation, in the exchangeable value of its produce. In this manner a tax is levied upon the consumers of corn, which surpasses the sum paid to the government, and enriches the owners of the best land at the expense of the community.'

An expensive mode of raising the taxes is a natural effect of a rude state of society. We are informed by Sully, that the receipt into the French exchequer, in the year 1598, was only thirteen millions of French money; while the sum, dragged out of the pockets of the people, was 150 millions. "The thing appeared incredible," says the statesman: but by the due degree of labour, I made the truth of it certain." The proportion was doubtless greater in Hindustan.3

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"2

Receiving the taxes in kind was a practice which ensured a prodigious expense, and a waste, by which nobody gained. Scarcely any other mode seems to have been known to the Hindus in the time of their ancient institutions; and to a great degree it continued down to the latest period of their history.1

See a Dissertation on the Principles of Taxation, the most profound, by far, which has yet been given to the world, by David Ricardo, Esq. in his work" On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation." ? Mém. du Sully, liv. xx.

3 It was doubtless much less, the amount was adjusted between the members of the village communities and the superintendent of the district; and the host of collectors never existed, except in the author's imagination.-W.

Among the Mexicans, says Dr. Robertson, "Taxes were laid upon land, upon the acquisitions of industry, and upon commodities of every kind exposed to sale in the public markets. These duties were consi

CHAP. 5.

BOOK II. How rude and inconvenient soever this practice must be regarded; we find several nations, who make a considerable figure in the history of the world, who have not in this respect advanced beyond the Hindus. It may not surprise any one, that taxes were raised in kind in the ancient empire of Mexico.' The greater part, though not the whole, were raised in the same maner, in Persia, even in the time of Darius Hystaspes; and the mixture, at least, whatever the proportion, continues to the present day.3 The whole revenue of China, with the exception of some trifling articles, is paid in kind.

2

derable, but not arbitrary or unequal. They were imposed according to established rules, and each knew what share of the common burden he had to bear." History of America, iii. 295, 229. The political descriptions of this admired historian are, commonly, by far too general, and thence vague. We cannot suppose that the Mexicans were more skilled in the policy of taxation than the Hindus.

"As the use of money was unknown," says Robertson, (Ibid. p. 296,) "all the taxes were paid in kind, and thus not only the natural productions of all the different provinces in the empire, but every species of manufacture, and every work of ingenuity and art, were collected in the public storehouses." It is worthy of remark, that the same mode of taxing handicrafts and labourers was adopted in Mexico as in Hindustan ; People of inferior condition (Ibid.), neither possessing land nor engaged in commerce, were bound to the performances of various services. By their stated labour the crown lands were cultivated, public works were carried on, and the various houses which belonged to the emperor were built and kept in repair.

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It is remarkable that, in Persia, the use even of coined money was unknown till the time of Darius Hystaspes. The portion of tribute that was paid in gold and silver, was received by weight. Herodot. lib. iv. cap. clxvi. Major Rennel, not aware that this was only a portion, and a small portion, of the Persian taxes, is exceedingly puzzled to account for the diminutive amount of the Persian revenues, and at last concludes that "the value of money was incredibly greater at that time than at present." Rennel's Geography of Herodotus, p. 316.

3 Ebn Haukal, translated by Sir William Ouseley, p. 136. Chardin's Travels in Persia.

Abbé Grosier, p, 76; Barrow's China, p. 499. Mr. Barrow informs us that a vast number of the vessels on the canals and rivers are employed

BOOK II.
CHAP. 6.

CHAPTER VI.

Religion.

IT is difficult to determine whether the consti-
tution of the government and the provisions of law,
or Religion, have, among the Hindus, the greatest
influence upon the lives of individuals, and the
operations of society. Beside the causes which
usually give superstition a powerful sway in ignorant
and credulous ages, the order of priests obtained a
greater authority in India than in any other region
of the globe; and this again they employed with
astonishing success in multiplying and corroborating
the ideas on which their power and consequence
depended. Every thing in Hindustan was transacted
by the Deity. The laws were promulgated, the
people were classified, the government was esta-
blished, by the Divine Being. The astonishing
exploits of the Divinity were endless in that sacred
land. For every stage of life from the cradle to the
grave; for every hour of the day: for every function
of nature; for every social transaction, God pre-
scribed a number of religious observances. And
meditation upon
his incomprehensible attributes, as

in conveying the taxes to the capital. Ib. p. 508. In those countries on the Euxine Sea, which early attained so high a state of civilization, as to have a large export trade in grain, even the custom-house duties, or the taxes on export and import, were levied in kind. We are informed by Demosthenes, Orat. adv. Leptinem, that Leucon, king of Bosphorus, from which Athens derived her principal supplies, levied a duty of one thirtieth in kind upon all the corn shipped in his ports.

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