are the class peculiarly exempted. It is
the profits of stock, from which that portion of the tax is derived
which falls on those labourers, who from the insufficiency of their
funds, are incapable of paying taxes; this portion is exclusively borne
by all those whose income is derived from the employment of stock, and
therefore it in no degree affects landlords.

It is not to be inferred from this view of tithes, and taxes on the land
and its produce, that they do not discourage cultivation. Every thing
which raises the exchangeable value of commodities of any kind, which
are in very general demand, tends to discourage both cultivation and
production; but this is an evil inseparable from all taxation, and is
not confined to the particular taxes of which we are now speaking.

This may be considered indeed as the unavoidable disadvantage attending
all taxes received and expended by the state. Every new tax becomes a
new charge on production, and raises natural price. A portion of the
labour of the country which was before at the disposal of the
contributor to the tax, is placed at the disposal of the state. This
portion may become so large, that sufficient surplus produce may not be
left to stimulate the exertions of those who usually augment by their
savings the capital of the state. Taxation has happily never yet in any
free country been carried so far as constantly from year to year to
diminish its capital. Such a state of taxation could not be long
endured; or if endured, it would be constantly absorbing so much of the
annual produce of the country as to occasion the most extensive scene of
misery, famine, and depopulation.

"A land-tax," says Adam Smith, "which like that of Great Britain, is
assessed upon each district according to a certain invariable canon,
though it should be equal at the time of its first establishment,
necessarily becomes unequal in process of time, according to the unequal
degrees of improvement or neglect in the cultivation of the different
parts of the country. In England the valuation according to which the
different counties and parishes were assessed to the land-tax by the
4th. William and Mary, was very unequal, even at its first
establishment. This tax, therefore, so far offends against the first of
the four maxims above mentioned. It is perfectly agreeable to the other
three. It is perfectly certain. The time of payment for the tax being
the same as that for the rent, is as convenien