The Social Contract - 08
We read in The Spirit of Laws* that taxation by head
is more appropriate to servitude奴役 and that real
taxes are more suitable to freedom.
Of all the other imposts税, the charge on land or real tax has
always been considered as the most convenient in countries
where more regard注意(n.) is paid to the amount produced, and the
reliability of collection, than to reducing the burden on the
people.
The taxation of land or corn, especially when it is done to
excess无节制的/过量的, has two drawbacks缺点 so terrible that
in time they are bound to depopulate and ruin any country in
which it is established.
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The first is due to the lack of circulation of money, for
commerce and industry attract吸引 into the capital首都/资本家 all the
money from the countryside, while taxation destroys the proportion★均衡
that might still exist between the labourer's needs and the price
of his corn, so that money flows in constantly and never
returns;
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the richer the city, the poorer the country.
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The product of the real taxes goes out of the hands of the ruler
or financier into those of the tradesman or merchant; and the
farmer, who receives only the smallest fraction小部分 of it, finally
exhausts himself by always paying out the same amount and
always getting less back.
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The second drawback is due to what seems to be a benefit,
but one that allows the damage to grow worse before it is
noticed：
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It is that corn is a product which is not made more expensive
by tax in the countries where it is grown, and which,despite
its absolute necessity, diminishes in quantity without
increasing in price;*
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the result being that many die of hunger
even though corn remains cheap, and the farmer
alone remains liable有义务的 for the tax, which he has not
been able to take from the proceeds of his sales.
The tax on things cannot be discussed in the same terms as
dues税 by which the prices of all kinds of merchandise商品 are
increased, and which are consequently paid by the customer
rather than the merchant. （？？？）
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For such dues, however high, are nonetheless voluntary, and
are paid by the merchant only (in proportion to★与...成比例)
the goods that he buys; and since he buys only in proportion
to his sales, he adjusts the price to the individual customer.
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But the farmer who, whether he makes any sales or not, is obliged
to pay tax at a fixed rate on the land he cultivates, ★is not in a
position to wait for the price of his goods to be fixed at the level
that suits him, and even if he were not to sell them in order to
maintain himself, ★he would be forced to sell them in order to pay
the tax, so that sometimes it is the enormous巨大的 tax that keeps the
price of the goods at a low level.
Note注意 also that the resources of commerce and industry do
not make the tax on land any more tolerable because of the
abundance of money, but instead make it more onerous繁重的.
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while the greater or lesser quantity of money in a state
can bring it more or less credit externally外表上, it does not
change the real prosperity of the citizens in any way, and
makes them neither more or less wealthy.
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1.unless the state has an excess of goods, and the abundance
of money comes from sales abroad, the towns in which trading
takes place are the only places in which its abundance has any
effect, while all it does for the peasant is to make him relatively
poorer;
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2.with the growth in the supply of money,
the price of everything goes up, so that taxes necessarily
go up in the same proportion, and the labourer finds himself
paying higher taxes without having greater resources.
