The land rental, then, after deducting one-fifth, I estimate at20,000,000l.
The tenant's rental of land, deducting two-thirds of rack rent, I take at6,000,000l.
The amount of tythes, deducting one-fifth4,000,000l.
The produce of mines, canal navigation, etc., deducting one-fifth3,000,000l.
The rental of houses, deducting one-fifth5,000,000l.
The profits of professions2,000,000l.
The rental of Scotland, taking it at one-eighth of that of England5,000,000l.
The income of persons resident in Great Britain drawn from possessions beyond seas5,000,000l.
The amount of annuities, from the public funds, after deducting one-fifth for exemptions and modifications12,000,000l.
The profits on the capital employed in our foreign commerce12,000,000l.
The profits on the capital employed in domestic trade, and the profits of skill and industry28,000,000l.
——————
In all102,000,000l.
——————

Upon this sum a tax of 10 per cent. is likely to produce 10,000,000l. a year, and this is the sum which is likely to result from the measure, and at which I shall assume it.

I trust that it will not be necessary for me to go into any detail of argument to convince the committee of the advantages of the beneficial mode adopted last session, of raising a considerable part of the supplies within the year.... It will be manifest to every gentleman on the slightest consideration of the subject, that, in the end, the measure of raising the supplies within the year is the cheapest and the most salutary course that a wise people can pursue; and when it is considered that there is a saving of at least one-twelfth upon all that is raised, gentlemen will not suffer a superstitious fear, and jealousy of the danger of exposing the secrecy of income, to combat with a measure that is so pregnant with benefits to the nation. If gentlemen will take into their consideration the probable duration of peace and war, calculated from the experience of past times, they will be convinced of the immeasurable importance of striving to raise the supplies within the year, rather than accumulating a permanent debt. The experience of the last hundred, fifty, or forty years, will show how little confidence we can have in the duration of peace, and it ought to convince us how important it is to establish a system that will prepare us for every emergency, give stability to strength, and perpetual renovations to resource. I think I could make it apparent to gentlemen that in any war, of the duration of six years, the plan of funding all the expenses to be incurred in carrying it on, would leave at the end of it a greater burden permanently upon the nation than would be sustained, than they would have to incur for the six years only of its continuance, and one year beyond it, provided that they made the sacrifice of a tenth of their income. In the old, unwise, and destructive way of raising the supplies by a permanent fund, without any provision for its redemption, a war so carried on entails the burden upon the age and upon their posterity for ever. This has, to be sure, in a great measure, been done away and corrected, by the salutary and valuable system which has been adopted of the redemption fund. But that fund cannot accomplish the end in a shorter period than forty years, and during all that time the expenses of a war so funded must weigh down and press upon the people. If, on the contrary, it had at an earlier period of our history been resolved to adopt the present mode of raising the supplies within the year; if, for instance, after the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, the scheme of redemption had been adopted and persevered in to this time, we should not now, for the seventh year of the war, have had more to raise from the pockets of the people than what we have now to pay of permanent taxes, together with about a fourth of what it would be necessary to lay on in addition for this year. Fortunately, we have at last established the redemption fund: the benefits of it are already felt; they will every year be more and more acknowledged; and in addition to this it is only necessary, that instead of consulting a present advantage, and throwing the burden, as heretofore, upon posterity, we shall fairly meet it ourselves, and lay the foundation of a system that shall make us independent of all the future events of the world.[393]

[392] The Triple Assessment, based on the individual's previous payment to the various taxes on expenditure which Pitt had grouped together as the Assessed Taxes.

[393] The income tax was recast in 1803, when Schedules of different sources of income, instead of a general return, were introduced. It was again revised in 1806. In 1816 it was repealed. Peel reintroduced it in 1842 for three years, and it then became permanent.

13. Foreign Trade in the early Nineteenth Century [Committee on Orders in Council, Reports 1812 (III), pp. 38, 40, 41, 132-133, 522-523], c. 1812.

[Evidence of Joseph Shaw, Chairman of Birmingham Chamber of Foreign Commerce and exporter of hardwares.]

Have you had occasion to make any estimate, founded upon your own inquiries, of the number of workmen employed in the Birmingham manufactory[394]—and the neighbouring towns? I never particularly estimated for the whole of them, but in the year 1808 I took an estimate of the people employed in the American trade.... Those that could be ascertained to be (as nearly as could be) exclusively employed in the American trade were 50,000, exclusive of the nail trade, which employed from twenty to thirty thousand [of whom two-thirds were engaged in the American trade].