250. Accordingly we find that on no point touching the question of shifting and incidence, is the modern science so thoroughly agreed as on the disillusion with respect to the traditional a priori assumption which originated in the doctrine of prices held by the old school. It is no longer confidence in the effectiveness of the assumed tendency, but rather the appreciation of the actually operative causes that is decisive.

The tax legislator, therefore, in every case where he adopts, increases, lowers or abolishes a tax, will accordingly have to make himself familiar with the forces at work, in order to prevent the intent of the law and therefore the equitable provision which the state has in view, from being thwarted. In a question of the taxation of the necessary means of subsistence he will beware of assuming, with the old school of thinkers, that the equity of the case will take care of itself in that the new burden will presently be shifted to the employers or the consumers of the products of labor, etc.; he will rather try to find out what are the chances of the laborers being able to shift the burden from their own shoulders by effecting a rise in wages. Even this new attitude of doubt is a step in advance as compared with the old When the question concerns the abolition of an existing tax on consumption, we shall have, in place of the assumption that the abolition of the tax will be sure to accomplish its purpose (that is, to take the burden from the consumers) an investigation as to what are the intermediate personal factors whose co-operation is necessary in order to accomplish the object of the legislator.

error.

The great variety of the facts of life and the peculiarities of each individual piece of legislation are of course to receive due consideration; but there are, after all, certain general observations whose application is not bounded by the peculiarities of any individual case.

Shifting of taxation will take place regularly in proportion as the following causes are present: (1) the consciousness of unequal distribution of the burden of taxation, (2) the wish to rid oneself of the unequal burden, (3) the pecuniary ability to accomplish this purpose.

From these considerations it follows that a shifting of taxes can more readily be accomplished by capitalists than by laborers, by well paid and organized laborers better than by other classes of laborers, by organizations of employers better than by individual employers, by owners of movable capital better than by owners of immovable capital, by professional business people better than by amateur business men, by merchants better than by the consumers who are their customers,- or what amounts to the same thing, they are in a better condition to withhold the benefit of a reduction from the classes of the population which it was intended to benefit.

LITERATURE.

CHAPTER III.

THE HISTORICAL FORMS OF TAXATION.

K. H. Lang, Historische Entwicklung der Teutschen Steuerverfassungen (1793). G. Waitz, Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte, vol. viii. (1878). G. Schönberg, Finanzverhältnisse der Stadt Basel im 14. und 15. Jahrhundert (1879). K. Bücher, Die Bevölkerung von Frankfurt a. M. im 14. und 15. Jahrhundert (1886). Karl Zeumer, Die deutschen Städtesteuern, insbesondere die städtischen Reichssteuern im 12. und 13. Jahrhundert (1878). Johannes Falke, Die Geschichte des deutschen Zollwesens (1869). Hubert Hall, A History of the Customs Revenue in England (1885). Stephen Dowell, A History of Taxation and Taxes in England from the earliest times to the year 1885 (2d ed. 1888). Alexis de Tocqueville, L'ancien régime et la révolution (1856). G. Schmoller, "Die Epochen der preussischen Finanzpolitik" (Jahrbuch des deutschen Reichs, 1877). G. Schmoller, "Studien über die wirthschaftliche Politik Friedrichs des Grossen und Preussens überhaupt von 1680 bis 1786" (Jahrbuch des deutschen Reichs, 1884-1887). H. Bielfeld, Geschichte des magdeburgischen Steuerwesens von der Reformationszeit bis ins 18. Jahrhundert (1888). Walther Schultze, Geschichte der preussischen Regieverwaltung von 1766 bis 1786 (1888). C. A. Zakrzewski, Die wichtigeren preussischen Reformen der direkten ländlichen Steuern im 18. Jahrhundert (1887). B. Gliemann, "Die Einführung der Accise in Preussen" (Zeitschrift für die gesammte Staatswissenschaft, 1873). Von InamaSternegg, "Der Accisestreit deutscher Finanztheoretiker im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert" (Zeitschrift für die gesammte Staatswissenschaft, 1865). J. G. Hoffmann, Die Lehre von den Steuern (1840). Carl Dieterici, Zur Geschichte der Steuerreform in Preussen 1810-1820 (1875). K. G. Kries, Zeitschrift für die gesammte Staatswissenschaft, 1854, 1855, 1856.

I. THE SINGLE TAX AND A PLURALITY OF TAXES.

251. As old as financial science itself is the idea of embodying the whole system of taxation in a single tax.

The Physiocratic theory of taxation points to the tax on rent (assumed to be the only surplus of industrial production available for purposes of taxation) as being the direct and the

only tax. Voltaire (in his L'Homme aux quarante écus) ridiculed this as well as the other doctrines of the Physiocrats—the impôt unique was the impôt inique. Still the interests both of the theory and the practice were on the side of the Physiocratic idea.

The Single Tax came as a great relief to the theory after the chaos of taxes which the historical development had been piling up for some centuries past. Aversion to the results of the historical development seemed to offer special inducement at this point to a radical transformation of existing institutions. Simplicity, which, as the adage has it, is an earmark of the truth, was in this case, as happens so often on the introduction of a new doctrine, urged as a strong argument for the truth of the doctrine put forth. The entire view of the state and of society which dominated the era of the Revolution, with all its rationalistic, atomistic theory of the state and the man, favored and was attracted by this simplification. The administrative practice of the new era seized upon this simplification of an intricate problem with alacrity, and applied it in good earnest at the instant. when the French Revolution was realizing its programme. And even after the legislation had discovered and attempted to remedy the defects of the "single tax" the magic word retained its spell, and continued to figure as an article of faith in the radical party programmes. It was not only that the complete simplicity and intelligibility of the single tax fell in with the spirit of these programmes, but more especially that it recommended itself as of practical value for certain social-political purposes. It was only a secondary question whether the doctrine of the single tax was to be construed to mean an exclusive tax on rent (as was not usually done), or a "single progressive income tax for state and commune," in accord with the requirements of the most advanced thought.

The application of the single tax has, under favorable circumstances, even passed beyond the stage of party platforms and

'The single tax was criticised in detail by Necker, De l'administration des finances de la France (1785), vol. i. pp. 153-192; and earlier by Justi in criticising Vauban (Staatswirthschaft, vol. ii. p. 297).

been adopted, at least with approximate completeness, into the fiscal administration of some smaller communities. The canton Zurich has afforded a notable instance for twenty years past.

252. The question is, whether the ideal of radicalism which claims so very respectable scientific antecedents, is to be accepted by modern science. Is the single tax also our ideal, or are there scientific reasons which restrain us from availing ourselves of its apparent advantages.

It is in the first place to be granted that the necessity of at least a relative simplification has made itself felt and produced an effect in all the tax systems of Europe; whether we look to the French, the German, the British, or even the Swiss tax legislation, this proposition holds true. A great deal of the relics of the older tax system has been cleared away with the help of the light of financial science, even though this work of reform has not in all cases gone so far as in Great Britain, where the freetrade movement gradually reduced the number of dutiable articles from several thousand to half-a-dozen, or as in the cantons of Switzerland, the more advanced of which have cleared away practically the whole of the earlier tax system in order to make room for the income and property taxes.

Still, this relative simplification of the tax system always leaves room for some plurality of taxes, so much so that even in the experimental field of radicalism-in Switzerland—there is enough of it left to challenge reflection. It is to be noted that the increasing fiscal demands of canton and commune have for a number of years past found the "single tax" an intractable instrument which refuses to meet any considerable demands upon it; as a consequence of this fact the necessity of meeting the growing outlays has compelled the refurbishing and exaltation of nominally obsolete and long-discarded forms of taxation; at the same time the finances of the Swiss federation have never ceased to place their chief dependence on consumption taxes in the shape of a comprehensive taxation of nearly all articles of import, and under the pressure of new fiscal necessities these taxes have even