| Articles of revenue. | Fr. money. | Sterling ditto. | |||
| livres. | l. | s. | d. | ||
| The first twentieth penny on all income | 23 800 000 | 1 057 777 | 15 | 6½ | |
| Ditto upon tradesmen and merchants incorporated | 6 500 000 | 288 888 | 17 | 9¼ | |
| Ditto upon the Jews | 1 400 000 | 62 222 | 4 | 5¼ | |
| Total of the twentieth penny, which formed a sinking fund, shut up in 1759 | 31 700 000 | 1 408 888 | 17 | 9¼ | |
| The farm of the posts and relais of France | 6 000 000 | 266 666 | 13 | 4 | |
| Two shillings in the pound of the capitation added to it | 5 520 000 | 245 333 | 6 | 8 | |
| The farm of stamp-duties on leather, and duties on tanners bark | 2 960 000 | 131 555 | 11 | 1¼ | |
| The farm of duties upon gunpowder and saltpetre | 2 988 000 | 132 800 | — | — | |
| Two shillings in the pound of the twentieth penny added | 3 170 000 | 140 888 | 17 | 9¼ | |
| Total of this second branch of French taxes | } | 52 338 000 | 2 326 133 | 6 | 8 |
| Appropriations of this fund, as follows: | |||||
| 1. For paying, during 10 years, a part of the 990 millions, of livres, of old Annuities, charged above on the King’s ordinary revenue, and bearing an interest of 2½ per cent. the yearly sum of | 5 000 000 | 222 222 | 4 | 5¼ | |
| 2. To the India Company, in discharge of a debt due to them: for 12 years | 2 000 000 | 88 888 | 17 | 9¼ | |
| 3. For paying the prizes of the bankers lotteries every year as they are drawn: for 12 years | 3 800 000 | 168 888 | 17 | 9¼ | |
| 4. Towards making good deficiencies upon the funds appropriated for the war, yearly, till paid | 18 700 000 | 831 111 | 2 | 2½ | |
| 5. Ditto upon the funds appropriated to the new Ecole militaire | 1 200 000 | 53 333 | 6 | 8 | |
| 6. For payment of perpetual annuities created during last war | 14 500 000 | 644 444 | 8 | 10½ | |
| 7. For making good deficiencies upon the artillery and magazines, during the war 1744[1744]: for 12 years, the annual sum of | 1 800 000 | 80 000 | — | — | |
| 8. Ditto upon the article of foreign affairs | 8 690 000 | 386 222 | 4 | 5¼ | |
| Total appropriation | 55 690 000 | 2 475 111 | 2 | 2½ | |
This branch of revenue appears, by this state, to be totally appropriated to certain purposes.
Were appropriations adhered to in France, and could one be certain that debts are actually discharged, at the period appointed, in consequence of the appropriation for that purpose, we might form a better judgment of the actual amount of the debts of France, than in fact any man can do who is not in the administration.
Of this second branch of taxes I consider the twentieth penny, the two shillings in the pound augmentation upon it, and a like augmentation upon the double capitation; amounting in all to above 40 millions a year, as a resource which France may have at all times, in cases of necessity; although I do not suppose it will be possible to establish them as a fixed revenue. They will probably, however, as matters stand, be continued, either in whole or in part, until the great load of debts, recently contracted, shall be considerably diminished.
As for the remaining sum, arising from the posts, leather, and saltpetre, these I consider as perpetual; because by their nature they are not burdensome to the people.
We are not to understand that the annual sum of five millions of livres, appropriated for paying off the capital of 990 millions of the old annuities, bearing 2½ per cent. stated in art. 1st, was intended to be applied to these capitals, at the rate they stand. In France it is supposed that he who gets 20 years purchase of the interest of his debt, is always fairly paid off; and people there are so fond of reimbursements, even at this rate of making them, that when, about the year 1755, a like scheme of paying off those old annuities was suggested, it was upon condition that every one having, for instance, an annuity of 100 livres, should, in order to be intitled to this reimbursement, pay to the King 20 years purchase of it, or 2000 livres ready money; and that being complied with, his contract was to be put into the lottery wheel, with all the rest subscribed for, and if it happened to be drawn, he was to receive 4000 livres; to wit, the 2000 he had paid down, and the other 2000 as the value of a capital of 4000 livres, at 2½ per cent.
This every body must allow procures a wonderful facility in paying off debts. If the English creditors could be engaged to enter into the spirit of such reimbursements, government, I am persuaded, would not apply so closely as they do, to reduce the interest upon them; whereby a great distress comes upon poor widows and orphans, who have their all vested in the funds. This inconvenience is avoided in France: the poor are cherished by the comfort of high interest; the state is set free; and the creditors rejoice in getting back their money, in any shape whatever.
The war of 1756 breaking out, obliged the King to think of every expedient to increase his income. Had he set out by borrowing upon annuities for lives, at 10 per cent. and by mortgaging his ordinary revenue for the payment of them, his credit would have been more solid, and the plan of running in debt more systematical: but in the end, it would have involved him in the terrible dilemma of either making a bankruptcy, in order to re-instate himself in the possession of his ordinary revenue, or of making him depend more than he inclined upon his parliament; whose authority is absolutely necessary for laying a perpetual and regular imposition, which alone can form a solid basis of national credit.
He was therefore resolved, in one way or other, to increase the impositions on the people in the time of war, in order to avoid the consequences he foresaw from the loss of his fixed revenue.
The King’s ministers at this time could not convince the parliament of Paris, that in order to borrow money upon the best terms, it was necessary to have a sure fund for paying the interest of it.