[92] “One has come to regard the various nations as drawn up against one another in a perpetual state of war. This unfortunate prejudice is almost sacred, and is regarded as a patriotic virtue.” (Baudeau, p. 808.)
The three errors usually committed by States, and the three that led to the downfall of Greece, Baudeau thought, were arbitrary use of legislative authority, oppressive taxation, and aggressive patriotism (p. 801).
[93] “Before a harvest can be reaped not only must the cultivators incur the usual outlay upon stock, etc., and the proprietors upon clearing the land, but the public authority must also incur some expense, which might be designated avances souveraines.” (Baudeau, p. 758.)
[94] “The Government ought to be less concerned with the task of saving than with the duty of spending upon those operations that are necessary for the prosperity of the realm. This heavy expenditure will cease when the country has become wealthy.” (Quesnay, Maximes, xxvi.)
“It is a narrow and churlish English idea which decrees that an annual sum should be annually voted to the Government, and that Parliament should reserve to itself the right of refusing this tax. Such a procedure is a travesty of democracy.” (Dupont, in a letter to J. B. Say.)
[95] “The amount of the tax as compared with the amount of the net product should be such that the position of the landed proprietor shall be the best possible and the state of being a landowner preferable to any other state in society.” (Dupont, p. 356.)
[96] If we compare this figure with the total gross revenue of France, valued then at 5 milliard francs, it would represent a tax of 12 per cent., which is rather heavy for a State that was supposed to be governed by the laws of the “natural order.” The proportion which the present French Budget bears to the total revenue of the country is 16 per cent.
The French Budget of 1781, introduced by Necker, corresponded almost exactly with the figure given by the Physiocrats, namely, 610 millions. Of course, we ought to add to this the ecclesiastical dues, the seigniorial rights, and the compulsory labour of every kind, which were to disappear under the Physiocratic régime.
[97] “The tax is a kind of inalienable common property. When proprietors buy or sell land they do not buy and sell the tax. They can only dispose of that portion of the land which really belongs to them, after deducting the amount of the tax. This tax is no more a charge upon property than is the right of fellow proprietors a burden upon one’s property. And so the public revenue is not burdensome to anyone, costs nothing, and is paid by no one. Hence, it in no way curtails the amount of property which a person has.” (Dupont, vol. i, pp. 357, 358.)
[98] In order to give every security to proprietors the Physiocrats were anxious that the value of the property, when once it was fixed, should vary as little as possible. Baudeau, however, recognised the advisability of periodical revaluations “in order that the sovereign power should always share in both the profits and the losses of the producer.” And he addresses this important caution to the proprietors: “Take no credit to yourselves for the increase in the revenue of land. The thanks are really due to the growing efficiency of the sovereign authority.” (P. 708.)