Page:Manual of Political Economy.djvu/48

Rh Contents. xxxvii revenue, and the deficiency is made up by loans — Statement of the local finance of London in 1868— Local expenditure is increasing much more rapidly than the national wealth — Defects of administration arising from confused areas of rating and from multifarious rating bodies — The creation of many new rates — The demand for new rates is encouraged by the idea that an increase of local expenditure is of little consequence in a country so rapidly increasing in wealth as England — Fallacy of this explained — Arguments against meeting local expenditure by grants from the Ck>nsoli(mted Fund.... pages 61^—626 Chapter VII. The Incidence of Local Taocation, Local taxation consists almost entirely of rates on real property — Figures quoted to prove that rates in towns are generally much higher than in country districts— Land is contributing a constantly decreasing amount to local taxation in comparison with other kinds of property — In the case of cultivated land, although the rates are usually paid by the occupier, their real incidence is upon the owner of the land— In the case of houses, the incidence of by far the larger portion of the rates is upon the occupier ; a small portion only falling upon the owner of the land on which the house is built — If, however, the house possesses such exceptional advantages of situation that the rent is only in a small degree determined by the cost of building, then the incidence of the rates is almost entirely upon the owner of the ground — When a uniform and general rate is imposed on business premises the rate really falls on the consumer — When rates are exceptionally high in a particular district they are a special tax on the profits of trtule in that district — Rates imposed on railways and the railway passenger duty are a charge upon the profits of the shareholders and are not paid by railway passengers — The rates imposed upon water-works and gas-works are, except in certain exceptional cases, paid by the shareholders — The injustice explained of carrying out works of improvement by loans, the interest and capital of which are paid off in a fixed number of years, in the form of additional rates by the leasehold occupier, as aistinguished from the owner of houses, land, and other rateaole property 627 — 645 Index, 646 Digitized by Google