Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	lord_n	part_n	tenant_n	1,512	5	9.6400	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54612	A discourse of taxes and contributions shewing the nature and measures of crown-lands, assessments, customs, poll-moneys, lotteries, benevolence, penalties, monopolies, offices, tythes, hearth, excise, &c. : with several intersperst discourses and digressions concerning wars, the church, universities, rents and purchases ... : the same being frequently applied to the state and affairs of Ireland, and is now thought seasonable for the present affairs of England : humbly recommended to the present Parliament.	Petty, William, Sir, 1623-1687.	1689 (1689)	Wing P1920; ESTC R20953	59,806	88

where the least silver piece in six Pence 19. To apply all this I say that if there be too much money in a Nation it were good for the Commonalty as well as the King and no harm even to particular men if the King had in his Coffers all that is superfluous no more than if men were permitted to pay their Taxes in any thing they could best spare 23. On the other side if the largeness of a publick Exhibition should leave less money than is necessary to drive the Nations Trade then the mischief thereof would be the doing of less work which is the same as lessening the people or their Art and Industry for a hundred pound passing a hundred hands for Wages causes 1000 l. worth of Commodities to be produced which hands would have been idle and useless had there not been this continual motive to their employment 21. Taxes if they be presently expended upon our own Domestick Commodities seem to me to do little harm to the whole Body of the people only they work a change in the Riches and Fortunes of particular men and particularly by transferring the same from the Landed and Lazy to the Crafty and Industrious As for example if a Gentleman have lett his Lands to Farm for a hundred pound per annum for several years or Lives he be taxed twenty pound per annum to maintain a Navy then the effect hereof will be that this Gentlemans Twenty pound per annum will be distributed amongst Seamen Ship-Carpenters and other Trades relating to Naval matters but if the Gentleman had the Land in his own hands then being taxed a Fifth part he would raise his Rents near the same proportion upon his under Tenants or would sell his Cattle Corn and Wooll a Fifth part dearer the like also would all other subdependents on him do and thereby recover in some measure what he paid Lastly but if all the mony leavyed were thrown into the Sea then the ultimate effect would only be that every man must work a Fifth part the harder or retrench a Fifth part of his Consumptions viz. the former if forreign Trade be improveable and the latter if it be not 22. This I conceive were the worst of Taxes in a well-policyed State but in other States where is not a certain prevention of Beggary and The every that is a sure livelihood for men wanting imployment there I must confess an excessive Tax causes excessive and insuperable want even of natural necessities and that on a sudden so as ignorant particular persons cannot find out what way to subsist by and this by the law of Nature must cause sudden effects to relieve it self that is Rapines Frauds and this again must bring Death Mutilitions and Imprisonments according to the present Laws which are Mischiefs and Punishments as well unto the State as to the particular sufferes of them CHAP. IV. Of the several ways of Taxe ' and first of setting a part a proportion of the whole Territory for Publick uses in the nature of Crown-Lands and secondly by way of Assessement or Land-taxe BUt supposing that the several causes of Publick Charge are lessened as much as may be and that the people be well satisfied and contented to pay their just shares of what is needful for their Govenment and Protection as also for the Honour of their Prince and Countrey It follows now to propose the several ways and expedients how the same may be most easily speedily and insensibly collected The which I shall do by exposing the conveniences and inconveniences of some of the principal ways of Levyings used of later years within the several States of Europe unto which others of smaller and more rarer use may be referred 2. Imagine then a number of people planted in a Territory who had upon Computation concluded that two Millions of pounds per annum is necessary to the publick charges Or rather who going more wisely to work had computed a twenty fifth part of the proceed of all their Lands and Labours were to be the Excisum or the part to be cut out and laid aside for publick uses Which proportions perhaps are fit enough to the affairs of England but of that hereafter 3. Now the question is how the one or the other shall be raised The first way we propose is to Excize the very Land it self in kind that is to cut out of the whole twenty five Millions which are said to be in England and Wales as much Land in speiec as whereof the Rack-rent would be two Millions viz. about four Millions of Acres which is about a sixth part of the whole making the said four Millions to be Crown Lands and as the four Counties intended to be reserved in Ireland upon the forfeitures were Or else to excize a sixth part of the Rent of the whole which is about the proportion that the Adventurers and Souldiers in Ireland retribute to the King as quit Rents Of which two ways the latter is manifestly the better the King having more security and more obligees provided the trouble and charge of this universal Collection exceed not that of the other advantage considerably 4. This way in a new State would be goods being agreed upon as it was in Ireland before men had even the possession of any Land at all wherefore whosoever buys Land in Ireland hereafter is no more concerned with the Quit Rents wherewith they are charged then if the Acres were so much the fewer or then men are who buy Land out of which they know Tythes are to be paid And truly that Countrey is happy in which by Original Accord such a Rent is reserved as whereby the Publick charge may be born without contingent sudden superadditions in which lies the very Ratio of the burthen of all Contributions and Exactions For in such cases as was said before it is not only the Landlord pays but every man who eats but an Egg or an Onion of the growth of his Lands or who useth the help of any Artisan which feedeth on the same 5. But if the same were propounded in England viz. if an aliquot part of every Landlords Rent were excinded or retrenched then those whose Rents were setled and determined for long times to come would chiefly bear the burthen of such an Imposition and others have a benefit thereby For suppose A. and B. have each of them a parcel of Land of equal goodness and value suppose also that A. hath lett his parcel for twenty one years at twenty pound per annum but that B. is free now there comes out a Tax of a fifth part hereupon B. will not lett under 25 l. that his remainder may be twenty whereas A. must be contented with sixteen neat nevertheless the Tenants of A. will sell the proceed of their bargain at the same rate that the Tenats of B. shall do The effect of all this is First that the Kings Fifth part of B. his Farm shall be greater

reckon As for example if such Money were depressed but ten eleven or twelve per cent then the two pence piece would be worth but three half pence which is twenty five per cent and so of other proportions 9. Thirdly In case the inconvenience of this Money should be so great as to necessitate a new Coynage of it then will happen all the losses we mentioned before in melting it down by Bullioners 10. Fourthly If the two pence piece contained but the eighth part of the silver usually in a shilling then Dealers would have fifteen pence paid in this Money for the same Commodity for which they would take a shilling in Standard Silver 11. Raising of Money is either the cutting the pound Troy of Standard Silver into more pieces than formerly as into above sixty whereas heretofore the same was made but into twenty and yet both sorts called shillings or else calling the Money already made by higher names The reasons or pretences given for such raising are these viz. That the raising of Money will bring it in and the material thereof more plentifully for tryal whereof suppose one shilling were proclaimed to be worth two what other effect could this have than the raising of all Commodities unto a double price Now if it were proclaimed that Labourers Wages c. should not rise at all upon this raising of Money then would this Act be as only a Tax upon the said Labourers as forcing them to lose half their Wages which would not be only unjust but impossible unless they could live with the said half which is not to be supposed for then the Law that appoints such Wages were ill made which should allow the Labourer but just wherewithal to live for if you allow double then he works but half so much as he could have done and otherwise would which is a loss to the Publick of the fruit of so much labour 12. But suppose the Quart d' Escu of France commonly esteemed worth eighteen pence were raised to three shillings then 't is true that all the Moneys of England would be indeed Quart d' Escu pieces but as true that all the English Money would be carried away and that our Quart d' Escu would contain but half so much Bullion as our own money did so that raising of money may indeed change the species but with so much loss as the Forreign Pieces were raised unto above their intrinsick value 13. But for remedy of this suppose we raised the Quart d' Escu double and prohibited the Exportation of our own money in Exchange thereof I answer that such a Prohibition is nugatory and impossible to be executed and if it were not yet the raising of the said species would but make us sell the Commodities bought with raised Quart d' Escues in essect but at half the usual rate which unto them that want such commodities will as well yield the full so that abating our prices will as well allure strangers to buy extraordinary proportions of our Commodities as raising their money will do But neither that nor abating the price will make strangers use more of our Commodities then they want for although the first year they should carry away an unuseful and superfluous proportion yet afterwards they would take so much the less 14. If this be true as in substance it is why then have so many wise States in several ancient as well as modern times frequently practised this Artifice as a means to draw in money into their respective Dominions I answer that something is to be attributed to the stupidity and ignorance of the people who cannot of a sudden understand this matter for I finde many men wise enough who though they be well informed that raising of money signifies little yet cannot suddenly digest it As for example an unengaged person who had money in his purse in England and should hear that a ●●●ling was made fourteen pence in Ireland would more readily run thither to buy Land then before not suddenly apprehending that for the same Land which he might have bought before for six years Purchase he shall now pay seven Nor will Sellers in Ireland of a sudden apprehend cause to raise their Land proportionally but will at least be contented to compound the business viz. to sell at six and an half and if the difference be a more ragged fraction men under a long time will not apprehend it nor ever be able exactly to govern their practice according to it 15. Secondly Although I apprehend little real defference between raising Forreign Money to double and abating half in the price of our own Commodities yet to sell them on a tacite condition to be paid in Forreign present Money shall increase our money forasmuch as between raising the money and abasing the price is the same difference as between selling for money and in barter which latter is the dearer or between selling for present money and for time barter resolving into the nature of uncertain time 19. I say suppose English Cloth were sold at six shillings a Yard and French Canvas at eighteen pence the Ell the question is whether it were all one in order to increase Money in England to raise the French Money double or to abate half of the price of our Cloth I think the former better because that former way or proposition carries with it a condition having Forreign Money in specie and not Canvas in barter between which two waies the world generally agrees there is a difference Wheresore if we can afford to abate half our price but will not do it but for our neighbours money then we gain so much as the said difference between Money and Barter amounts unto by such raising of our Neighbours Money 17. But the fundamental solution of this Question depends upon a real and not an imaginary way of computing the prices of Commodities in order to which real way I premise these suppositions First then suppose there pe in a Territory a thousand people let these people be supposed sufficient to Till this whole Territory as to the Husbandry of Corn which we will suppose to contain all necessaries for life as in the Lords Prayer we suppose the word Bread doth and let the production of a Bushel of this Corn be supposed of equal labour to that of producing an ounce of Silver Suppose again that a tenth part of this Land and tenth of the people viz an hundred of them can produce Corn enough for the whole suppose that the Rent of Land found out as above-mentioned be a fourth part of the whole product about which proportion it really is as we may perceive by paying a fourth Sheaf instead of Rent in some places suppose also that whereas but an hundred are necessary for this Husbandry yet that two hundred have taken up the Trade and suppose that where a Bushel of Corn would suffice yet men out of delicacy will use two making use of the Flower only