The Rights of Man, Thomas Paine [the best books to read txt] 📗

" 0 6 14 10 L21 15s 2nd 1000 at 0 9 37 11 59 5 3rd " 1 0 50 0 109 5 (Total amount) 4th 1000 at 1s 6d per pound L75 0s L184 5s 5th " 2 0 100 0 284 5 6th " 3 0 150 0 434 5 7th " 4 0 200 0 634 5 8th " 5 0 250 0 880 5 9th " 6 0 300 0 1100 5 10th " 7 0 350 0 1530 5 11th " 8 0 400 0 1930 5 12th " 9 0 450 0 2380 5 13th " 10 0 500 0 2880 5 14th " 11 0 550 0 3430 5 15th " 12 0 600 0 4030 5 16th " 13 0 650 0 4680 5 17th " 14 0 700 0 5380 5 18th " 15 0 750 0 6130 5 19th " 16 0 800 0 6930 5 20th " 17 0 850 0 7780 5 21st " 18 0 900 0 8680 5 (Total amount) 22nd 1000 at 19s 0d per pound L950 0s L9630 5s 23rd " 20 0 1000 0 10630 5

At the twenty-third thousand the tax becomes 20s. in the pound, and consequently every thousand beyond that sum can produce no profit but by dividing the estate. Yet formidable as this tax appears, it will not, I believe, produce so much as the commutation tax; should it produce more, it ought to be lowered to that amount upon estates under two or three thousand a year.

On small and middling estates it is lighter (as it is intended to be) than the commutation tax. It is not till after seven or eight thousand a year that it begins to be heavy. The object is not so much the produce of the tax as the justice of the measure. The aristocracy has screened itself too much, and this serves to restore a part of the lost equilibrium.

As an instance of its screening itself, it is only necessary to look back to the first establishment of the excise laws, at what is called the Restoration, or the coming of Charles the Second. The aristocratical interest then in power, commuted the feudal services itself was under, by laying a tax on beer brewed for sale; that is, they compounded with Charles for an exemption from those services for themselves and their heirs, by a tax to be paid by other people. The aristocracy do not purchase beer brewed for sale, but brew their own beer free of the duty, and if any commutation at that time were necessary, it ought to have been at the expense of those for whom the exemptions from those services were intended;*[37] instead of which, it was thrown on an entirely different class of men.

But the chief object of this progressive tax (besides the justice of rendering taxes more equal than they are) is, as already stated, to extirpate the overgrown influence arising from the unnatural law of primogeniture, and which is one of the principal sources of corruption at elections.

It would be attended with no good consequences to enquire how such vast estates as thirty, forty, or fifty thousand a year could commence, and that at a time when commerce and manufactures were not in a state to admit of such acquisitions. Let it be sufficient to remedy the evil by putting them in a condition of descending again to the community by the quiet means of apportioning them among all the heirs and heiresses of those families. This will be the more necessary, because hitherto the aristocracy have quartered their younger children and connections upon the public in useless posts, places and offices, which when abolished will leave them destitute, unless the law of primogeniture be also abolished or superseded.

A progressive tax will, in a great measure, effect this object, and that as a matter of interest to the parties most immediately concerned, as will be seen by the following table; which shows the net produce upon every estate, after subtracting the tax. By this it will appear that after an estate exceeds thirteen or fourteen thousand a year, the remainder produces but little profit to the holder, and consequently, Will pass either to the younger children, or to other kindred.

TABLE III Showing the net produce of every estate from one thousand to twenty-three thousand pounds a year No of thousand Total tax per annum subtracted Net produce L1000 L21 L979 2000 59 1941 3000 109 2891 4000 184 3816 5000 284 4716 6000 434 5566 7000 634