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If these were his real reasons for advocating the assessed taxes , he would ii fortiori be the advocate of a property tax . They are in fact a property tax , distinguished from it only by peculiarities which make them much more open to objection , and less entitled on any score to preference . His allegations are only partiall y true . They do to a certain extent divert capital and industry from
their natural channels . The very word surcharge will in many districts call up a host of recollections quite sufficient to settle the question of ' officious interference ; ' and ample proof is before the legislature and the public of their shameful , or rather shameless evasion , if not by , yet on behalf of , the aristocracy . It is only partial truth , therefore , that can be conceded to this description . And the same remark applies to the reviewer ' s assertion , that they
are not paid by the tenant , but by the landlord . In a few cases that is the fact ; but only in a very few cases . The builder of houses will only provide fresh shelter for us , so long as he receives in rent the regular profit on his capital . With an increasing population , the burden of the tax must , therefore , generally fall on the occupier . The competition is that of tenants for houses , rather than that of
landlords to obtain tenants . And this must especially be the case where situation is a primary object . The tradesman and shopkeeper cannot choose their ground : they must inhabit certain localities : it will not do to spread their wares in a wilderness . The houses which they need are at a monopoly price . The reviewer avails himself of the statement made in the House of
Commons , that numbers of houses were empty in the Strand , Regent Street , and other principal streets in London , to argue , that * shops are not deficient , but in excess . And being so , it is quite clear that the taxes imposed on them , though paid in the first instance by the tenant , really fall on the landlord , the rent received by the latter being reduced proportionally to the amount
of the taxes . ' This might be written innocently in the north ; but any resident in London must know that the argument is as empty as it assumes the shops to be . Vacancies in such streets are frequent , but never permanent . They are not occasioned by the want of competition for them amongst tenants , but by the intensity of that competition . They are occasioned by the failures incessantly occurring amongst those who , in their eagerness to obtain an advantageous position , submit to burdens so disproportionate , as to
render their profits inadequate . A shop in such a situation is a ticket in the great commercial lottery . And the number of blanks is long before it diminishes the avidity of buyers . It may be said that , were the taxes repealed , the competing tenants would be ready to pay the same amount as rent . They might fora time ; but they would soon find , as they may find now , that they could not afford it . Then the rents would fall , and might fall so low as to make the landlord pay the tax . The hope of getting rid of the tax , u hope which has been so strongly encouraged , is one element
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House and JVindow Tax , 579
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2 S 2
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1833, page 579, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2620/page/67/
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