The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith (the best motivational books .TXT) 📕

is an opportunity of smuggling taxes ought to be moderate.”

“That taxes expensive in the levying ought to be avoided.”

“To avoid arbitrary taxes.”

“To remedy” inequality of riches “as much as possible, by relieving the poor and burdening the rich.”

“That every tax which tends to impoverish the nation ought to be rejected with indignation.”

“To avoid taxes that require the oath of party.”

—⁠Cannan ↩

In ed. 1 “as they could contrive” comes here instead of three lines earlier. ↩

Ed. 1 reads “is imposed according to.” For the origin of the stereotyped assessment of the land tax, see Cannan, History of Local Rates in England, 1896, pp. 114⁠–⁠119. ↩

Ed. 2 reads “They contribute.” ↩

Ed. 1, beginning after “the same revenue,” six lines higher up, reads “As the tax does not rise with the rise of the rent, the sovereign does not share in the profits of the landlord’s improvements. The tax therefore does not discourage those improvements.” ↩

Memoires Concernant les Droits tom. i p. 240, 241. ↩

Memoires Concernant les Droits, etc. tom. i. p. 114, 115, 116, etc. ↩

Memoires Concernant les Droits, pp. 117⁠–⁠119. ↩

Memoires Concernant les Droits, etc. tom. i p. 83, 84 and 79. ↩

Memoires Concernant les Droits, p. 280, etc. also p. 287, etc. to 316. ↩

As stated just above. ↩

Mémoires, tom. i, p. 282. ↩

Misprinted “tallie” here and five lines lower down in Eds. 2⁠–⁠5. ↩

Memoires concernant les Droits etc. tom. ii p. 139, etc. pp. 145⁠–⁠147. ↩

31 Geo. II, c. 12, continued by 5 Geo. III, c. 18. ↩

Genesis 47:26. ↩

Above, here. ↩

Eds. 1⁠–⁠4 read “a fifth.” ↩

Above, here. ↩

Since the first publication of this book, a tax nearly upon the above-mentioned principles has been imposed. —⁠Smith

This note appears first in ed. 3. The tax was first imposed by 18 Geo. III, c. 26, and was at the rate of 6d. in the pound on houses of £5 and under £50 annual value, and 1s. in the pound on houses of higher value, but by 19 Geo. III, c. 59, the rates were altered to 6d. in the pound on houses of £5 and under £20 annual value, 9d. on those of £20 and under £40, and 1s. on those of £40 and upwards. —⁠Cannan ↩

Ed. 1 reads “the houses.” ↩

Ed. 1 does not contain this sentence. ↩

Memoires concernant les Droits, etc. tom. i p. 223. ↩

Chapter IX. ↩

Above, here through here. ↩

Memoires concernant les Droits, tom. i. p. 74. ↩

The Mémoires only say “La taille consiste dans le quart pour cent que tout habitant, sans exception, est obligé de payer de tout ce qu’il possède en meubles et immeubles. Il ne se fait aucune répartition de cette taille. Chaque bourgeois se cottise lui-même et porté son imposition à la maison de ville, et on n’exige autre chose de lui, sinon le serment qu’il est obligé de faire que ce qu’il paye forme véritablement ce qu’il doit acquitter.” But Lord Kames, Sketches of the History of Man, vol. i, p. 476, says, “Every merchant puts privately into the public chest, the sum that, in his own opinion, he ought to contribute.” ↩

Ed. 1 reads “Underwold.” ↩

Ed. 5 adds “it” here, doubtless a misprint. ↩

Memoires concernant les Droits, tom. i. p. 163, 166, 171. —⁠Smith

The statements as to the confidence felt in these self-assessments are not taken from the Mémoires. —⁠Cannan ↩

Proposed by Legge in 1759. See Dowell, History of Taxation and Taxes in England, 1884, vol. ii, p. 137. ↩

Ed. 1 does not contain “a.” ↩

Above, here. ↩

Above, here. ↩

Memoires concernant les Droits, etc. tom. ii. p. 17. ↩

Ed. 1 reads “nor to.” ↩

Above, here. ↩

Ed. 1 reads “West India.” ↩

E.g., by Montesquieu, Esprit des lois, liv., xiii, chap. xiv. ↩

17 Geo. III, c. 39. ↩

This paragraph is not in ed. 1. ↩

Lib. 55 [25] quoted by Burman and Bouchaud. See also Burman De Vectigalibus Pop. Rom. cap. xi in Utriusque thesauri antiquitatum romanarum graecarumque nova supplementa congesta ab Joanne Poleno, Venice, 1737, vol. i, p. 1032B and Bouchaud de l’impôt du vingtieme sur les successions et de l’impôt sur les marchandises chez les Romains, nouv. ed., 1772, pp. 10 sqq. —⁠Smith ↩

See Memoires concernant les Droits, etc. tom. i. p. 225. ↩

All Eds. read “fiftieth,” but the Mémoires say “quinzième” and the “only” in the next sentence shows that Smith intended to write “fifteenth.” ↩

Ed. 1 does not contain “very.” ↩