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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FINANCIAL REFORM 839 Peel relied in carrying through his reconstruction of our AD, Ls fiscal system in the interest of trade. The tax thus intro- duced, as a temporary expedient, proved so successful that it has since become part of the ordinary revenue system of the country, The”budget of 1845 was unexpectedly epoch- ata making, since it marks the beginning of a new development ’ of direct taxation. This result was not attained without a struggle. Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton was the mouthpiece of those who believed that this powerful fiscal instrument should be re- served for use on special emergencies?; but it has been too convenient to be lightly sacrificed, and it cannot be regarded hich has as inequitable. Indeed, it may be said that by the imposition ‘tained as of this tax the means were at last available for redressing the a regular injustice of which the landed interest had complained for a couple of centuries? and for forcing the moneyed men to pay on the income derived from accumulated wealth. It is not clear that Peel would have had any scruple in retaining the income-tax as a permanent thing, or that Pitt* would have regarded it as unfair ; but there was much room for question as to whether it was expedient in the new conditions of English life. The basis of general prosperity had shifted from the landed to the trading interest; and it was possible to argue that the well-being of the public was advanced by fostering the enterprise of the country in every way. Mr Gladstone was persistent in his opinion as to the demerits of this tax, and attempted to do away with it in 1853, in 1863, and again in 1874, He believed that the tax was objectionable, in so far as it fell upon the active business energy of the day ; he desired to give relief “to intelligence and skill as compared with pro- perty®” But in this, as in other financial matters, practical owing to convenience has had an overwhelming influence. The country venience. was uneasy about the probity of the funding system, in the early eighteenth century, but no statesman, when really pressed, could dispense with it, and the income-tax when re-introduced could not be discarded ; it had come to stay. 278. The application of laissez faire principled to our commercial system aroused comparatively little opposition, as } 3 Hansard, cxxvI. p. 455. 2 See above, p, 425, 8 Parl. Hist. xxx111. 1086. + 8. Buxton, Mr Gladstone, pp. 120, 127, 129. $ 3 Hansard, cxxv. 1422.

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