The Industrial Revolution

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1027928145

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-159926

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Cunningham, William http://d-nb.info/gnd/128907487

Title:: The Industrial Revolution

Place of publication:: Cambridge

Publisher:: The University Press

Year of publication:: 1922

Scope:: xxii S., S. 404-886

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

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A.D. 1689 —-1776. and as to the desira- bility of destribut- ng 504 PARLIAMENTARY COLBERTISM itself against the maintenance of a restriction which had always been a matter of controversy. Another fundamental principle of Parliamentary Col- pertism had been that taxation should be levied, so far as possible, in forms that were not unfavourable to the industry of the country. This had been the basis of Walpole’s scheme, whereas Davenant and the Tories at- tached the first importance to questions connected with the incidence of taxation. They desired that contributions should be drawn from all classes of the community, though the burden should be made to rest as lightly as possible on those who were least able to bear it; and these principles were clearly borne in mind in Pitt's fiscal reforms. Many of these were of an administrative character®, but his view as i The party cleavage on the policy of the Navigation Acts is not so marked as m other questions. Child, and more doubtfully Davenant, pronounced in their favour. Their alleged advantage in promoting shipping was probably more ipparent in some trades, e.g., the East India Trade, than in others. t The Tory tradition was maintained by Lord Liverpool ; see Dict. Pol. Ec.,8.v. 3 Owing to the gradual additions which had been made to the sums levied, the sustoms rates were extraordinarily confused ; each article imported paid a number of separate taxes which were answered under different headings. The collection and administration of such a complicated system was most wasteful; while the taxes, when taken together, were so high as to interfere seriously with the consumption of the article and to offer a great temptation to the smuggler. Adam Smith had laid stress on these matters, and had advocated the policy of simpli- lying the departments and diminishing the taxes in the hope of lessening the trauds and of putting down smuggling. The duty on tea was reduced from 119 to 12} per cent. But such a considerable change appeared to be a very rash step. As Adam Smith had pointed out, what was required was an entire change of system (Wealth of Nations, 874). On the pressure of existing taxes, see Parl. Hist., xx1. 398 (Bunbury); but while Pitt set himself to face the difficulties of sarrying this through, he was also determined to have & sufficient margin in case the project did not answer his expectations. He therefore levied additional duties on windows and on houses, by the Commutation Act (1784); and was thus able to make his reduction and to wait for the expected expansion of the revenue without hampering any of the departments of Government. The reform thus initiated established Pitt's reputation as a financier; he also set to work to improve the fiscal administration by grouping a certain number of exactions on carriages, men-servants, horses, etc., and treating them as Assessed Taxes Dowell, rm. 188, 1785), which fell almost entirely upon the richer classes. In a somewhat similar fashion the complicated customs duties were replaced by a single tax on each article; the methods of collection were improved, and the proceeds of the whole were lumped together as a Consolidated Fund (1787), instead of being kept under separate accounts. Pitt's success, in carrying through these simplifications and changes, was partly due to the care he took to provide some new form of revenue which might tide him over the period of transition (75. 192).

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