Thoughts on the mechanism of societies

by marquis de Charles Casaux

On the other hand, to write in French, and endeavour to introduce into France, a pamphlet in which the author does not profess himself an admirer of a reimbursement, the possibility of which, now clearly demonstrated, has excited there a general enthusiasm, a kind of rapture the more excusable, as the most evident disorder in all parts of the finances, during the space of 80 years, did not permit even the humane and sensible mind to form a single wish for that very measure of which the execution is so certain, and the advantages pretended to be so positive.... It is suing with impudence for the good graces of a nation, to which I have, as it were, been turned over by the cession made to it of the country where my fortune lies: it is ridiculously flattering myself that I shall justify by a trait of unbridled licence, the title of Englishman, conferred on me by the treaty of peace.

It is certain, that more than once a man has been most secretly accused, tried with the greatest expedition, condemned without being heard, and punished with merciless severity, in consequence of charges much less specious than the above; for I confess that there is a faint glimmer of plausibility in the heads of accusation which I have brought. But, in the end, justice must be done; and, thank heaven, my present trial is on the very first instance, brought to its last stage; the public shall be my judge; they shall be put in possession of all the documents relating to the trial; and I presume to hope, that no one of those who shall be able to bear the perusal of them, will suspect my sincerity when I protest, that, without any other motive but that which has at all times invariably guided me through life, I would burn this paper, if I could find therein a single word that might be hurtful to France—I would burn it, were I to find therein a single word that might be hurtful to England—I would burn it, were I to find therein a single word that might give offence to any individual of either of the two kingdoms.—But I freely own, that my ambition would be far from receiving its full gratification, were this work to prove useful only to those two parts of the world, however brilliant the part they act therein.—URBI ET ORBI.—Shakespear says that the Warrior seeks “the bubble glory in the cannon’s mouth:” a man who presumes to think, looks for it in the bottom of his inkstand: their hope is not always crowned with success; nay, very often, the one meets only death, and the other contempt. Yet there are some lucky chances: sometimes the former saves his country, the latter is sometimes serviceable to all mankind.

Be it as it may, I intreat the reader to observe, that the principles I lay down do not tend, by any means, to lessen the public credit, to spread any doubt on the faculties which France and England have of effecting the reimbursement which both these nations have in contemplation; I maintain, on the contrary, with the simplicity of a child, that it is a childish play, for the one as well as for the other. I say, that the one who appears the most distressed of the two, and is the most taken up with her pretended distress, has only to take from the pocket of one, what he will be very averse to give, and put it into the hands of another, who will be equally averse to receive. I say, with respect to the nation, which now acts the most brilliant part, that all she has to do, is to give, to those who do not ask for it, a sum of money which she receives, and has no occasion for; to give it, I say, for fear of being solicited, importuned, and teazed, to make a bad use of it, or else be obliged to hoard it up, to the very great detriment of circulation. I shall add now, that a business, which to me, does not appear a childish one, but really that of a man, would be to examine, whether the 40 or 50 millions of livres annuity, which are about to expire by degrees in France, and the million, or million and half sterling of taxes to be levied in England, over and above the sum necessary to pay the interest of the national debt, and other state expenditures, will be better employed in the diminution of some private revenue than in the increase of the general wealth in both States; that is to say, whether it is most advantageous to pay off the creditors, who, by such a reimbursement, will be compelled to place at 4 and at 3, what brought them in 5 and 4 per cent. than to lay out the money, for the purpose of increasing, perhaps by one fourth, the products of agriculture and industry, by a faithful and judicious repartition of those sums upon the cultivation of some millions of acres, which now yield nothing but brambles, or yield only the half of what they ought to produce.—How many of this description are to be found both in England and France!⸺This is not all: how many kinds of taxes, the effects of which have not been sufficiently searched into! How many more, whose pernicious consequences are fully known! How many more, the levying of which can be justified only by reason of their produce being wanted, or by the supposed impossibility of a commutation!—Ought the State to reimburse, before those have been scrutinized, these repealed, and all commuted which shall appear evidently to militate against sound principles?

The great art does not consist in finding, at pleasure, one million sterling more in France as well as in England, or vice versâ. Heavens! what kind of minister would that man be, whose genius could not discover, in either kingdom, in the multitude of objects truly susceptible of taxation, a number of articles capable of furnishing that million annually, without injuring the general consumption, beyond the first year at the worst? The only difference which, in this respect, I might point out between the two nations, is, that in France the impost would be registered, and paid after the usual remonstrances; and that in England, were the tax to have been devised, even by Supreme Wisdom, on the actual system, all those who might think themselves directly or indirectly interested in the operation of the tax, would not fail to clamour as loud as possible, and not without reason; for, after all, if the objects taxed, are equitably taxed, and in a due proportion with all the rest, why, out of 160 objects and upwards, already charged with equity, should ten be picked out to be overloaded with a new burden?—Has at least a rotation been established for the future?—On what principles? Or does it evidently appear that there can be no fixed one adopted on so important a matter?—If a tax is offered to be laid on such articles as have paid none hitherto, then Opposition stands on firmer ground; for, are not those objects, by their nature, evidently as sacred as the ark of the Lord? Did ever the least scrupulous, the boldest Minister of the finances, dare, to this day, to lay his hand upon it?—Would he have respected it, if he had not trembled for his head; that is, in plain English, for his place? For, thank Heaven, there is no necessity, now, for the English to be more hot-headed than any other nation in Europe. It is generally acknowledged among themselves, with true English sang-froid, that, on the part of those champions of patriotism, who, according to the interest of the day, charge each other by turns with selling the people, and betraying the sacred constitution, all terminates now in the most exact change of admirable sarcasms, and exquisite railleries. The pleasure of being a Minister because the minister alone can do what is good, and the concern at not being a Minister, because the minister alone can do what is good, are now productive of nothing more in England; and the People, as well as the King, are not worse served for it, nor are they worse informed: witness the speeches on both sides.

Amongst the questions which I have mentioned, and many others always appropriated to the subject, there are some sufficiently weighty to puzzle, in England as well as in France, the respondent who should be obliged, before a tax is laid, to answer them in a satisfactory manner. Luckily, as I have already mentioned, in France, thanks to the monarchical constitution, the King commands, the Parliament remonstrates, registers, and the People pay: and, as is known to all the world, thanks to the free constitution of England, there the King demands, the parliament debates, grants, and the People pay. With that facility which exists every where, of doing what is not palpably absurd, I think it might be possible now, without bringing credit or authority in question, to renounce the little vanity of devising a productive tax; and that a man of common abilities ought to confine himself to the establishing or maintaining order and clearness in the accounts, to the diminution of expences in collecting the revenues, and to fidelity in the use of them.—But the true, the unacquired glory to be obtained by a financier, would be, I think, to hit upon a simple scheme, the application of which might be obvious in all cases, a scheme productive of no fruitless evil, permitting all possible good, and which might, by degrees, be substituted to those vague taxations, to those taxations founded on false principles, to those wild notions, which, by adding five to an article not worth three, raise nevertheless that object to eight, and leave the trader at liberty to sell that for fifteen, which he sold formerly at four. It is true that, on the first exigency of the State, they pretend to remedy the abuse by an additional tax called licence, or by any other name which answers the same purpose, and compels the peculator to refund part of his extortion. But what does this licence come to, after all?—To sell to a man the right of ransoming more severely the public, after having previously furnished him with the means and pretence for doing it.

No one doubts, in England, but that the system of French taxation is a very bad one; nothing so self-evident as the reasons adduced in proof; every thinking man in France approves of those reasons:—but does it clearly appear, that in England some parts of that system are not adopted?—Is it not true, on the contrary, that it has prevailed, for a long time, in one point truly essential, in regard to which they have but diminished its inconveniencies, without thinking perhaps of the injustice, which is as inseparable from it, as it is from those wherein it appears more evidently?—The advantage of taxing the consumption is generally acknowledged; it is as generally believed that the way of bringing this system to perfection is by taxing, above all, the consumption of the rich:—yet, were it to happen that the poor should be more injured, and that for a longer time, by a natural effect of the very operation devised for their release, than he could be aggrieved if nothing should escape the tax....

I shall venture to throw out some thoughts on these different objects, after I have examined whether the necessity of a balance of trade, constantly favourable, be not as doubtful as that of a reimbursement, and a bankruptcy; and whether that balance is really such as many people imagine it.

General Balance of Trade in England.

When the proprietor of a considerable sum in the English funds examines Sir Charles Whitworth’s truly valuable work, State of the Trade of Great-Britain; he thanks his stars, and says, “I have nothing to fear whilst the balance of trade continues in favour of this kingdom; but the moment it shall turn against her, recourse must inevitably be had to the expedient so long postponed: the application of the sponge is inevitable.”—

I have perhaps already said enough to animate the greater part of those, who are concerned in the public funds of every enlightened nation, against every other fear but that of a reimbursement; but, as it may be believed, with regard to the public funds in England, that I have reasoned on the supposition, generally admitted, of that balance in their favour, of which the English are so jealous, I would wish doubly to strengthen the mind of the parties concerned, by proving to them that their fortune rests on a basis much more solid than that of a pretended favour, which the private interest of every merchant, vigilantly repels, whilst the fancy of the body at large happily confines them to believe in the idol, and to invoke it.