300 YEARS AGO

Waipa Post, Volume 48, Issue 3483, 23 June 1934, Page 3

300 YEARS AGO

A SPEECH ON FINANCE. (Contributed by G.R.) The King of France was one day expressing his wonder to his Minister that the Netherlands should give so much trouble; that so great a monarch, as he was should not be able to reduce so small a State with half the power' of his whole dominions. To which M. Colbert made the following answer:— Sir, I presume upon your indulgence to speak what I have thought upon this subject with that freedom which becomes a faithful servant, and one who has nothing more at heart than Your Majesty's glory and the prosperity of your whole people. Your territories are vastly greater than the United Netherlands; but, sir, it is not land that fights against land, but the strength and riches of one nation against the strength and riches of another. I should have said only riches, since it is money that feeds and clothes the soldier, furnishes the magazine, provides the artillery, and answers the charge of all other military preparations.. Now, the riches of a prince or a State are just so much as they can levy upon their subjects, still leaving them sufficient for their subsistence. If this shall not be left, they will desert to other countries for better usage; and 1 am sorry to say it that too many of YoUr Majesty's subjects are already amlong your neighbours in the condition of cooks, footmen, and valets for their daily bread. Many of your artisans, too, have fled from the severity of your tax collectors, and they are at this time improving the manufactures of your enemies. France has lost the benefit of their hands for ever and Your Majesty all hopes of any excises by their consumption. For the extraordinary sums of one year you have parted with an inheritance. I am never able without the utmost indignation to think of that Minister who had the confidence to tell your; father his subjects we/re but too happy, that they were not yet reduced to eat grass, as if starving his people were the only way to free himself from their sedition. But, sir, people will not starve in France so long as bread is to be had in any other country. How much more of a prince was that saying of your grandfather that he hoped to see that day when every housekeeper in his dominions should be able to allow his family a capon for their Sunday's dinner ? I lay down this, therefore, as my first principle, that your taxes upon your subjects must leave them sufficient for their subsistence, at least as comfortable as they will find among your neighbours. Upon this principle I shall be able to make some comparison, between the revenues of Your Majesty and those of the StatesGeneral. Your territories are nearly thirty times as great, your people more than four times as many, yet your revenues are not thirty, no nor four as great, nor indeed as great again as those of the United Netherlands. In what one article are you able to raise twice as much from your subjects as the States can do from theirs ? Can you take twice as miuch'from the rents of the lands and houses ? What are the yearly rents of your whole kingdom l ? And how much, of these will Your Majesty be able to take without ruining the landed interest ? You have, sir, above a hundred million acres, and not above thirteen millions of subjects; eight acres to every subject. How inconceivable must be the value of land where so many acres are to provide for a single person ! Where a single person is the whole market for the" product of so much land ! And what sort of customers are your subjects to these lands ? What clothes is it that they wear ? What provisions do they consume ? Black bread, onions, and other roots are the usual diet of the generality of your people; their common drink water; they are dressed in canvas and wooden ~shoe)B. I mean such of them! as are not barefoot and half naked. How very mean must be the eight acres which will afford no better subsistence to a single person! Yet so many of your people live in this despicable manner that four pounds will be easily believed to exceed the annual expenses of every one of them. And how little of this expense will be coming to the landowner for his

rent ? Or, which is the same thing, for the mere product of his land ? Of everything that is consumed the greatest part of the value is the price of labour that is bestowed upon it; and it is not a very small part of. their price that is paid to Your Majesty in your taxes. Of the four pounds expense of every subject it can hardly be thought that more than four and twenty shillings are paid for tlhe mere product of the land. Then, if there are eight acres to every subject, and every subject for his consumption pays no more than four and twenty shillings to the land, three shillings must be the full yearly value of every acre in your kingdom. Your lands separated from the buildings cannot be valued higher. And what, then, shall be thought the yearly value of the houses, or, which is the same thing, of the lodgings of your thirteen millions of subjects ? What numbers of these are begging their bread throughout your kingdom ? How miserable must be the lodgings of these wretches ! Even those that will not ask charity are huddled together four [or fiVe families in a house. Such is the lodging in your capital. That of your other towns is yet of less value; but nothing can be more ruinous than the cottages ; n the villages. Six shillings for the lodging of every one of your thirteen millions of subjects at an average must needs be the full yearly value of all the houses. So that at four shillings for every acre, and six shillings for the lodging of every subject, the rents of your whole kingdom will be less than twenty millions, and yet a great deal more than they were ever found to be by the most exact survey that has been taken. The next question, then, is: How much of these rents Your Majesty will think fit to take to your own use ? Six of the twenty millions are in the hands of the clergy, and little enough for the support of three hundred thousand ecclesiastics, with all their necessary attendants; it is no more than twenty pounds a year for every one of these masters. These, sir,, are your best guards; they keep your subjects loyal in the midst of all their misery. Your Majesty will not think it your interest to take anything from the church. From what remains in the hands of your lay subjects will you be able to take more than five millions to your own use ? This is more than seven shillings in the pound; and then, after necessary reparations, together with losses by the failing of tenants, how very little will be left to the owners ? These are gentlemen who have never been bred either to trade or manufacture; they have no other way of living than by their rents, and when these shall be taken from them they must fly to your armies, as to an hospital, for their daily bread. Now, Your Majesty will give one leave to exaimine what are the rents of the Netherlands, and how great a part of these their Governors mjay take to themselves without oppression of the owners. There are in those provinces three million of acres, and as many millions of subjects—a subject for every acre. W,!hy should not, then, the single acre there be as valuable as the eight acres in France, since it is to provide for as many mouths'? Or, if great part of the provisions of the people are brought in by their trade from the sea or foreign countries;, they will end at last in the improvement of their lands. I am ready to believe that thirty shillings, one with another, is less than the yearly value of every acre in those provinces. And how much less than this will be the yearly value of lodging for every one of their subjects ? There are no beggars in their streets, scarce a single one in a whole province. Their families in large towns are lodged in palaces in comparison with those of Paris. Even the houses in their villages are more costly than in many of your cities. If such is the value of their three millions of acres, and of lodging for as many millions of subjects, the yearly rents of lands and houses are nine millions in those provinces. Then how much of this may the States take without ruining the landowners for the defence of their people? Their lands by the custom of descending in equal shares to all the children, are distributed into so many hands that few or no persons are isubsisted by their rents; landowners, as well as others, are chiefly subsisted by trade and manufactures; and they can therefore with as much ease part with half of their whole rents as Your Majesty's subjects can a quarter. The States may as easily take four millions and a half from their rents as Your Majesty can five from those of your subjects. It remains now only to compare the excises of both countries. And what excises can Your Majesty hope to receive by the consumption of the half-starved and half-naked beggars in your streets ? How great a part of the price of all that is eaten or drunk by those wretched creatures, how great a part of the price of canvas cloth and wooden shoes that are everywhere worn throughout the country ? How great a part of the price of their water or their black bread and onions, the general diet of your people ? If you were to receive the whole price of those things your exchequer would hardly run over. One would almost think they starve themselves to defraud Your Majesty of your revenues. It is impossible to conceive that more than an eighth part can be excised from the 'expenses of your sulbjects, and then for the thirteen millions of people your whole revenue from excises

will amount to no more than six millions and a half. And how much less than this sum will the States be able to levy hjy the same tax upon their subjects ? There are no beggars in that country. The people of their large towns live vastly better than yours. And even those in their villages are better fed and clothed than the people in your towns. At an average, every one of their subjects lives at twice the cost of those of France. Trade and manufactures are the things that furnish them with money for this expense. Therefore, if thrice as much shall be excised from the Hollanders, yet still they will have more left than the subjects of Your Majesty, though you should take nothing at all from them. I believe,- therefore, that it will be as easy to levy thrice as much upon the Dutqh subject as the French — thirty shillings upon the former as easy as ten upon the latter, and consequently four millions and a half of pounds upon their three mill ions of subjects—so that in the whole by rents and excises they will be able to raise nine millions within the year. If of this sum, for the maintenance of their clergy, the charge of their civil list, and the preservation of their dykes, one million is deducted, yet still they will have eight for their defence at revenue equal to twothirds of Your Majesty's. You will now no longer wonder that you have not been able to reduce these provinces with half of the power of your whole dominions. Yet half is as much as you will be ever able to employ against them. Germany and Spain will be always ready to espouse their qularrel; their forces will be sufficient to cut out work for the other half; and I must ask you to make friends with England and also Italy. This, then, is the advice I would give Your Majesty: To disband the greater part of your forces, and thus save so many taxes to your people. To turn your thoughts from war, and cultivate the arts of peace, and the trade and manufactures of your people; this shall make you the most powerful of princes, and your subjects the richest of all other nations. Peace and trade shall carry out their labour to all parts of Europe, and bring back yearly treasures to your subjects. There will be always fools enough to purchase ,the manufactures of France, though France should be prohibited to purchase those of other countries.

This was the substance of what was then said by M. Colbert. The King was not ai all offended with this liberty of his Minister. He knew the value of the man, and soon after made him the chief director of the trade and manufacture.; of his people.