taxation in France will be found to be L.35,000,000, equal, after allowing for the difference of money, to nearly L.4.7,000,000 in England. Though this is greatly below the amount (see article ENGLAND, p. 149) levied in Britain and Ireland, the taxation of France is, in some respects, more injurious to pro ductive labour. The droit de patente is a direct charge on industry, while luxuries, such as carriages, horses, men-servants, are exempt from imposts of any kind. In the assessment of the great tax, the fancier, there exists a surprising number of over ratings on the one hand and omissions on the other, which are receiving a tardy remedy by the progress of the Cadastre. Finally, the enregistrement exceeds in pressure all our stamp taxes ; being a duty on sales to the extent of five per cent. on the principal, a charge which, in very many cases, delays and even prevents the transfer of property.
The expense of collecting taxes in France is (Speech of M. Ganilh in 1818) fully 9 per cent. on the principal, or 3 per cent. higher than in England ; but a more remarkable discrepancy, in the eye of the political economist, is, that while with us two-thirds of the amount are imposed on consumption, in France two-thirds are raised from production. M. Ganilh proposed, in 1814, to approximate to the English plan, by lessening thefoncier, and other direct taxes, and by increasing the droits reunis, or Excise duties; but to innovate in taxation is a matter of great diffi culty in France.
The subjoined table contains the expenditure of France, after the discharge (in 1820) of all her en gagements to the allied powers, and after funding her floating debt.
Brought forward, L. 16;227,000 Treasury-office charges and abatements of taxes, 850,000 Police, 1- - 100,000 Army estimates, 6,000,000 Navy 1,800,000 Home department, comprising public works, and a variety of local expences, the funds for which, though raised on the spot, are held at the disposal of the minister of the home department, and re-issued on an application to him from the prefects or mayors, 2,500,000 Discount to collectors and others, 600,000 Add a computed amount for all extra or contingent charges, such as relief to the poor under a bad harvest, defalca tion of particular taxes, &c. 1,223,000
Total, L. 30,000,000 The French compute their public debt not by the I principal, but by the interest payable—a preferable plan to ours, perhaps, since no government entertains a serious intention of paying off the principal ; and to negotiate a loan is merely to make a sale of annui ties, either for a term, or for perpetuity. Of the ten millioqs, payable annually to the public creditors be fore the Revolution, the half was in life annuities, the aggregate of stock, or borrowed capital, not amounting to 100 millions sterling. At present the case is dif ferent, the life annuities bearing, as in England, a small proportion to the rest of the debt. On the whole, the interest of the French debt is little more than a fourth of ours. Though their stocks yield an interest of 5 per cent., paid, like ours, half yearly, their price -has been low ever since 1813 ; L. 100 stock having been always purchasable for less than L. 80 in money, and frequently for L.72, L. 70, L. 68, affording the buyer a return of 7 per cent. on his investment. The very minute subdivision of landed property in France is a great obstacle to the increase of capital. Still, the probabilities seem strongly in favour of a rise of French stock, by a progressive transfer of capital from countries, like England and Holland, where it yields only 4 or 5 per cent. Moreover, the sinking fund of France is now in an efficient state, receiving from the treasury an I annual allowance of L. 1,600,000 Its farther supplies arise from the interest of the redeemed stock, sale of wood from the public forests &c. 500,000 Carrying its total income to L. 2,100,000 In regard to the annual budgets under Bonaparte, it is remarkable, that, while the Exposes, or general declarations, were replete with exaggeration and falsehood, the arithmetical statements appended to them were fair and accurate—doubtless, on the cal ' culation that the Expose alone would engage the at tention of the French public.