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 F I N F I N 191 of the home producer, and to make it necessary that the manufacture should be carried on by low-priced labour. It is almost certain that, had the scheme of taxing matches been adopted, the supply of these articles would have rapidly been limited to foreign producers, or it would have been necessary to have established, simultaneously with the impost, a really protective duty on the foreign article. Manufactures, indeed, unless they are wholly ruined by taxation, or at least confined to domestic supply, can be and are made to accommodate themselves to circumstances. The amount of capital employed in supplying the taxed commodity diminishes with the demand, competition between capitalists slackens, and in due time the rate of profit in the particular industry reaches its old level. But the process is undoubtedly accompanied by loss to both capitalist and labourer, as well as followed by an enhance ment of price to the consumer, together with a still more serious depression of foreign trade, however fully the duties levied are allowed on export. In illustration of the effect which an erroneous system of finance induces on industry, nothing can bo more instructive than the history of the revenue in the few years preceding Peel s adminis tration of 1841 ; the effect of the reform in the tariff which that minister adopted; and the loss which ensued from postponing the full effect of these reforms owing to the hesitation which Peel showed in abolishing the corn laws, which could have been much better repealed in 1843 than in 1846. It is said, and has been said for the last century, that it is inexpedient to tax capital. To this we have already given the answer. A Government can tax nothing but capital, actual or potential. For all wealth is of two kinds, The first is that which is absolutely necessary for the con tinuity of industry, and which cannot be taxed without destroying that industry. There can be no tax on necessary consumption. The second is that which can be saved, which is in part saved, in part consumed unproductively. This product of labour can be and can alone be taxed. The English system of finance attempts to levy taxation on a part of this, either directly on revenue, though it might be levied with advantage on the wealth itself, instead of or concurrently with the revenue derived from the wealth, or indirectly on consumption. Nor does the taxation of capital diminish capital. It merely changes its direction. The tax may be expended unwisely, even mischievously. But it undoubtedly calls labour into activity, and may therefore give wider employment than it would if left in the hands of those who are now mulcted of a portion of what they might have saved or spent. It may even increase capital by increasing economy in expenditure, and inducing those who are taxed to fill up the void in their own resources which the tax has created. The expenditure of the Dutch in the palrny days of their finance was enormous ; the taxation to which the people submitted was searching to an extent and minuteness which has had no parallel since ; but, notwithstanding the prodigious sacri fices which the people made, they accumulated capital so rapidly by reason of parsimony, that those who watched the financial condition of the republic made all sorts of guesses as to what could be the reason why enormous taxation was accompanied by a singularly low rate of interest, and at last some persons, absurdly enough, asserted that the taxa tion was itself the cause of the low rate. Apart from imperial finance, the wealth of this country is liable to other levies imposed for local purposes. Most local taxation is direct, and imposed on occupation. Some, however, is indirect, and levied on consumption. Again, some local taxation is imposed in satisfaction of a local duty, some in consideration of a local service. Thus the duty on coals consumed within a particular radius from St Paul s cathedral, originally, we are told, imposed in order to meet some of the losses incurred by the great fire of London, is a tax on consumption, analogous to the octroi duties imposed in Continental towns. The county and borough rates imposed for the maintenance of roads and of police, rates levied for the use of gas and water, are pay ments intended to be the ecpuivalents of public service, and capable, with greater or less exactness, of being apportioned to the amount of benefit received by the taxpayer. Of late years some large towns have made use of their local needs for the purpose of creating capital on the security of rates, and of deriving some of the profits of a joint-stock company from the sale of gas and water, with a view to lightening other local burdens of a more general kind. Under proper safeguards, such a form of local finance is beneficial and to be encouraged. It bears a close analogy to the Government service of the post office. Local finance has followed in one particular the precedent supplied it by the central Government, in anticipating its revenue by loans. Most of these loans, however, are terminable, i.e., provision is made for repayment of principal as well as interest. The amount of these loans is in excess of 100 millions, and is likely to increase. But most of the increased charge is to be put down to the head of remunerative outlay, there being, as we have stated, an increased disposition indeed from necessity on the part of local authorities to undertake the satisfac tion of public services, or the supply of public conveniences. The aggregate annual expenditure of the United Kingdom for local and imperial taxation, including loans, is now about 125 millions. The authorities relied on for this article are principal!} for ancient history, Boeckh s Public Economy of Athens, and Bureau de la Malle, Economic politique des Remains; and for modern times Macpherson s Dictionary of Commerce; Grellier s History of the Rational Debt; Porter s Progress of tlie Nation; Sir Stafford Northcote s Twenty Years of Financial Policy ; The Statutes at Large, in the edition commencing from the first volume printed by Berthollet for Henry VIII. and continued in the same form to the present time ; Hansard s Parliamentary Debates, &c. (J.E.T.E.) FINCH (German Fink, Latin Fringffla), a name applied (but almost always in composition as Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Hawfinch, &c.) to a great many small birds of the Order Passeres, and now pretty generally accepted as that of a group or family the Fringillidce of most ornitho logists. Yet it is one the extent of which must be regarded as being uncertain. Many writers have included in it the Buntings (Emberizidce), though these seem to be quite distinct, and the grounds of their separation have been before assigned, (cf. BUNTING, vol. iv. p. 525), as well as the Larks (Alaudidce), the Tanagers (Tana yr idee), and the Weaver-birds (Ploceidce) the mode in which these three last differ having in due time to be shewn in these pages. Others have separated from it the Crossbills, under the title of Loxiidce, but without due cause (cf. CROSSBILL, vol. vi. p. G14), while again some systematists have placed among the Finches the Mouse-birds (Coliidct)an. allocation which a very slight study of osteological characters would have proved to be unsound; and a group which has no English name, including probably the genera Panurus (the so-called Bearded Titmouse), Para- doxornis, and, perhaps, a few others, has also been occasionally referred to the Finches, to all appearance erroneously. The difficulty which at this time presents