rence of property of
every kind, so far as they diminish the capital value of that property,
tend to diminish the funds destined for the maintenance of labour. They
are all more or less unthrifty taxes, that increase the revenue of the
sovereign, which seldom maintains any but unproductive labourers, at the
expense of the capital of the people, which maintains none but
productive."

But this is not the only objection to taxes on the transference of
property; they prevent the national capital from being distributed in
the way most beneficial to the community. For the general prosperity,
there cannot be too much facility given to the conveyance and exchange
of all kinds of property, as it is by such means that capital of every
species is likely to find its way into the hands of those who will best
employ it in increasing the productions of the country. "Why," asks M.
Say, "does an individual wish to sell his land? it is because he has
another employment in view in which his funds will be more productive.
Why does another wish to purchase this same land? it is to employ a
capital which brings him in too little, which was unemployed, or the use
of which he thinks susceptible of improvement. This exchange will
increase the general income, since it increases the income of these
parties. But if the charges are so exorbitant as to prevent the
exchange, they are an obstacle to this increase of the general income."
Those taxes however are easily collected; and this by many may be
thought to afford some compensation for their injurious effects.

CHAPTER VIII.

TAXES ON RAW PRODUCE.

Having in a former part of this work established, I hope satisfactorily,
the principle, that the price of corn is regulated by the cost of its
production on that land exclusively, or rather with that capital
exclusively, which pays no rent, it will follow that whatever may
increase the cost of production will increase the price; whatever may
reduce it, will lower the price. The necessity of cultivating poorer
land, or of obtaining a less return with a given additional capital on
land already in cultivation, will inevitably raise the exchangeable
value of raw produce. The discovery of machinery, which will enable the
cultivator to obtain his corn at a less cost of production, will
necessarily lower its exchangeable value. Any tax which may be imposed
on the cultivator, whether in the shape of land-tax, tithes, or a tax on
the produce when o