diture on a medium computation of 25 years; and also the national capital, and the yearly national gross income during the eighteenth century. But the third part of the whole national income of a country, namely, that part which in every prosperous community generally goes to the accumulation of national capital, is to be considered as the net or taxable income of that country; the other two-thirds of the gross annual income go to maintain the annual consumption, and to put in motion the annual productive industry of the country. Whence as the whole national yearly income of Britain now, in 1810, amounts to £450,000,000, her net or taxable income is £159,500,000 per annum. But her present yearly amount of taxation for 1810, is only £70,000,000, not half of her taxable, and about eighteen per cent. on the whole of her gross income; leaving the sum of about £80,000,000, to be laid up every year in accumulation of the national capital; which accumulation of capital, being spread annually over her agriculture, manufactures and commerce, enables her still more to augment her whole capital yearly; to render her taxes more productive in themselves, and to press more lightly on her people; to increase her population, her productive industry, and to advance every year in all that renders a nation permanently prosperous and powerful. It is on account of this annual accumulation of national capital from the surplus of the taxable income, remaining after deducting the amount of annual taxation, that warranted the assertion made above; namely, that the national capital of Britain had increased, during the ten years from 1800 to 1810, by at least £300,000,000; be-. ing in 1800, £2,700,000,000; and now, in 1810, £3,000,000,000. The following table shows the taxable income of Britain to have increased in a greater ratio than her expenditure during the eighteenth century; and in consequence that she is better able to bear her present annual burdens, than she was to bear those imposed upon her in the beginning of the period now under consideration. It is to be remembered that the present extraordinary expenditure of Britain far exceeds the average amount of her annual expenditure computed on a medium of twenty-five years; and therefore that her taxable income bears a much greater proportion above her usual expenditure than at this crisis of affairs it appears to bear. In peace her expenditure would not probably exceed £40,000,000 per annum; which is not quite the amount of her peace-tax establishment; and would enable her to remit nearly £30,000,000 per annum of war-taxes. The increased productiveness of the taxes in Britain is also a proof that her net annual or taxable in come increases more rapidly than her yearly burden of taxation is augmented; because the taxes being laid chiefly on the consumption of commodities, and in part directly on property, if the property and the consumption taxed did not increase, the taxes themselves could not increase. But the augmentation of consumption and property in a country implies an increase of national wealth, as no people can consume commodities beyond their ability to obtain them; the increased productiveness of the taxes in Britain might have been inferred a priori from the vast increase of her agriculture, manufactures, and commerce. In the space of twenty-two years, from the Restoration in 1666, to the Revolution in 1688, the British exports and tonnage of trading ships were doubled; for instance, At the Restoration the official? value of exports were At the Revolution. £2,043,043 4,086,000 In the last twenty years of the eighteenth century, from 1780 to 1800, the imports of Britain were more than doubled, and her exports nearly trebled. Imports, official value. Exports official value. In 1780, £11,700,000. 1800, 29,945,800. £13,554,093 35,990,000 The revenue of the post-office, which, as indicating the communication of the several parts of a country with each other and with foreign nations, is always a sure test of the prosperity or decline of trade in all its branches, has increased in Britain twelve-fold during the eighteenth century. In 1700 it was £58,672; and in 1800, £717,335. The net payments of the post-office in Great-Britain for the years ending the 5th April, 1808, 1809, 1810, were, Inland postage, 1,048,214, 1,074, 129, 1,132,137, Foreign postage including foreign 50,485, 31,570, 66,562, country letters. Total, 700, 1,098,700,11,105,700, 1,198,700, The revenue arising from the consumption of commodities has also increased greatly, particularly during the last twenty years of the century. The British taxes in 1793, including those repealed that year, amounted to £14,132,000. The average increase of the old revenue up to the year 1802, is the more remarkable because in 1799, new taxes were imposed to the amount of more than £7,500,000 a year; and in 1802, nearly the most productive year of the whole, a farther sum of £7,000,000 was raised by an aid and contribution; by voluntary subscriptions; and by the convoy-tax. During the war which commenced in 1793, by the provisions of the Consolidation-Act the accounts of the new taxes imposed since the year 1792 were kept distinct from the old revenue arising from taxes laid on before the year 1792. These accounts were annually laid before the Parliament, in order to show how far the taxes imposed were sufficient to pay the interest of the debt created, and to provide a Sinking Fund for its gradual extinction. But in 1803 the duties of customs, excise, and stamps, imposed before 1792, were consolidated with those imposed since that year; whence the amount of the old as distinguished from that of the new taxes can no longer be known at the British Exchequer. Net produce of the permament taxes imposed in Britain before the year 1792. Remarks. Years. Sums. £. 12,104,798 11,867,055 1785; and the con 13,007,642 13,433,068 14,072,978 1791, 14,132,000 Total, L. 91,540,675 Average of these seven years, And the average of the seven years is £.12,854,239 L. 13,077,239 223,000 Average of these seven years, of the first seven years, Excess in favor of the last 7 years, In this period new) 1799, taxes were imposed L. 13,934,000 12,854,000 1,080,000, L. 15,727,000 14,238,000 14,641,000 15,433,000 1800, to the amount of L.7,468,000. of S1 1801, 1802, |