Page:Life of Sir William Petty 1623 – 1687.djvu/217

 which, in the latter half of the last century, England was being called upon to choose in the settlement of her future financial and commercial system. Sir William, in his early days, had travelled in Holland. He had evidently even then been attracted by the example of Dutch trade and finance, and as early as 1644 he had written a tract called the 'Frugalities of Holland,' which, however, was lost at sea. In the 'Treatise on Taxes,' with an eye still fixed in the same direction, he begins by pointing out that the only legitimate public charges of a State are, its defence by land and sea so as to secure peace at home and abroad and honourable vindication from injury by foreign nations; the maintenance of the chief of the State in becoming splendour, and of the administration, in all its branches, in a state of efficiency; 'the pastorage of souls by salaried ministers of religion;' the charge of schools and universities, the endowment of which, in his opinion, ought to be a concern of the State, and the distribution of whose emoluments ought not to be 'according to the fond conceits of parents and friends,' and of which one of the principal aims should be the discovery of Nature in all its operations; 'the maintenance of orphans, the aged, and the impotent,' for, in his opinion, 'the poor can lay up nothing against the time of their impotency and want of work, when we think it is just to limit the wages of the poor;' and the improvement of roads, navigable rivers, bridges, harbours, and the means of communication, and the development of mines and collieries.

He then considers the causes which increase and aggravate the public charges and render them unpopular. These he analyses under six heads: (1) The distrust of the people in the honesty of the administration which collects and spends the taxes; (2) their compulsory payment in money and the want of a proper banking system; (3) obscurities and doubts concerning the right of imposing; (4) scarcity of money and confusion of coins; (5) the fewness of the people; (6) the absence of accurate statistics and of proper valuation lists.