Page:Landholding in England.djvu/133

The land-tax, as it at present stands, dates from 1692, the fourth year of William and Mary. Immediately after the revolution of 1688 this country was involved in the long and costly war with France which continued till the last year of Queen Anne. It was to carry on this war that in 1690 a land-tax of 4s. in the £ was voted for one year. As it was obvious that the tax must be continued, a valuation of all the lands of the kingdom^[1] was taken in 1692. Commissioners were appointed to discover on the spot the annual value of rents, and to assess the respective counties. The rate is called 4s. in the £, but 24s. instead of 20s, are to be paid on every £100, and the lands are to be valued on what they would bring in, "if truly and bona fide leased at a rack-rent." The assessment of all the lands, at 4s. in the £, amounted to £2,037,627, but in 1697 4s. was made the limit of the rate, and £2,000,000 was fixed as the limit of the whole annual sum to be thus raised. The Act was still "for one year only," and was described as "for carrying on a vigorous war with France," but it long outlasted that war and many others. It was renewed year by year for a century. In peace time it was only 3s. or 2s. in the £, and even occasionally is., but the moment there was war it went up to 4s. again, amidst the bitter complaints of the landed gentry, who declared themselves by it. A striking instance of the way in which burdens have been shifted from the well-to-do to the great body of the people is connected with the Land Tax. At the beginning of the reign of George II. the revenue was in so flourishing a condition that Sir Robert Walpole thought he could do without the Salt Tax,^[2] also first imposed in the reign of William III. It had long been complained of as "burdensome to the poor, bad for manufactures, and fatal to the progress of British fisheries." So in 1729 he repealed the Salt Tax (illegible text) some others, the abolition to take effect from Christmas, (illegible text) but before the repeal could do any good he proposed (illegible text) of his own Act that he might please "the landed m{{illegible} " by

1. It is generally received that, about 1660, the whole rental of England in land, houses, and mines, was about £6,000000 and twelve years' purchase. About 1690, the rental was about £14,000,000 and eighteen years' purchase.
2. This was the excise of salt, not the duty on imported salt.