Gents Mag 1766 p.581
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introduction | ||
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list, 3rd qtr 18th century | ||
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Gentleman's Magazine 1766 p.581
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Land Tax Cumberland |
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Land Tax,
Cumberland
The Land-Tax explained and considered. ... ... Mr URBAN. THE Land-Tax seems by some to be a subject very little understood. When the parliamentary settlement was made (upon the faith and credit of which, nine tenths of the land in England has since been bought) certain poor counties were to pay a certain sum, when the lad (sic) tax was at 4s. in the pound; which land in those counties was rated at a certain purvey, to provide the said certain sum; so that a purchaser, from the purvey of the land he was contracting for, could ascertain how much he must pay when the land tax is at 4s., in the pound (for every purvey in the county raises 100l.) therefore, for instance say, as the purvey of the estate in question is to 100l. one general purvey, so is the proportion he is to pay, to the sum to be raised by the county when the land tax is 4s. in the pound; in other words, the purchaser must pay so many crowns as the county rasies hundred pounds. We will call this an exemption from the land-tax (perhaps not 6d. in the pound upon the value) I say the purchaser paid for this exemption, and bought it on the faith of Parliament, as stockholders bought their stock, upon the faith that they would not be taxed, altho' they are as liable to it, as these lands; and the usual price of these lands, if freehold, is forty years purchase. Again, he that bought lands in the counties that pay land-tax, bought them lower in proportion, from 25 to 35 years purchase upon the gross rent, the neat (sic) income being what a purchase considers, and the lands bought 25 year purchase, produce no more nett, than those bought at 40 years purchase per cent, on the purchase-money; this is well known to Gentlemen in the House, who have lands of both sorts. Hence it is plain, that if a law should pass, for the whole nation to pay a tax of 2s. in the pound, exempted lands would immediately sink 10 per cent. in value, and the 4s. land that is eased of 2s. would rise 10 per cent. in value, just as a tax of 2s. in the pound on the stock dividends, would sink the value of stock 10 per cent., and an act passed to grant them 2s. in the pound more than the dividends, would raise the value of the stock 10 per cent. and thence I infer, that 2s. in the pound, levied upon all the land in England, would not be an equitable tax. My property lies in Cumberland (let every man speak for his own county) I now proceed to shew you, that besides the impropriety of taking (call it an exemption) from a man, which he has bought and paid for, the said county really cannot pay 2s. in the pound ;and tax, because the landholders do not lay up 2s. in the pound of their rents, in three years, so cannot pay such a sum every year. There is a ridge of mountains, that goes from the Irish Sea to the German Sea, on the North of which this county lies, by which situation we are deprived of much benefit of the sun which you enjoy; the middle of February is the middle of our winter, & the farmers must have one half of their straw and two thirds of their hay at that time, or their stock perishes. We cannot turn out horses and cows to grass till the beginning of June, at which time the grass begins to fit: add to this, that the winds and incessant rains, the latter end of the year, from Michaelmas, caused by the situation of those mountains, make it very unfavourable for goods to be exposed. As soon as you pass these mountains, and get into Cumberland, you perceive the air changed to a light, thin, cold air, very unfavourable to vegetation; hence the land is kept so cold and spungy, that we cannot sow oats before April, bigg (the substitute for barley) before June, and the wet and frost in winter is very unfavourable for wheat, so that our lands, with the vast quantity of manure we must employ, more than is necessary south of the mountains, costs one third at least more to till them than yours do, and does not produce half the crops yours produces; this makes our crops come so dear, that I may venture to say, of all the many thousand pounds paid for bounty of corn, I never heard of a single guinea being paid bounty |
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