admits the analogy between shops and farms, but expresses the opinion that the shopkeeper will try to meet an increase of rates by charging higher prices for his goods. Fuller consideration, while inducing me to attach less weight to the relative eligibility of different sites, has strengthened my conviction that the case of shops differs largely from that of private dwelling-houses. The ability of the shopkeeper to add the increase of his rates to the prices of his goods must depend upon his freedom from the competition of traders not equally subject to the increased expense, such as, for instance, shopkeepers and merchants in other towns or abroad, and hawkers. The barriers which protect the shopkeeper from the invasion of his market from a distance are more and more giving way, owing to the increasing facilities for communication of every kind; and he will soon be little better off in this respect than the farmer. When the shopkeeper cannot shift the expense to his customers, it would appear that it must fall ultimately upon the ground-owner. The proportion borne in either manner is not precisely ascertainable, but the greater part would seem to go into the latter scale. It must, of course, be understood that if the result of an increase of rates should be to reduce shop rents, the loss would fall upon the owner of the building during the currency of his lease. It is only in those cases where the latter is also the owner of the ground-plot that the burden would fall upon the ground-landlord immediately. The case of dwelling-houses in decaying towns would be subject to the like reservation. From the foregoing survey of the incidence of local taxation in England and Wales we reach the following conclusions: (1) The rates levied in respect of the occupation of farmlands, tithes, woodlands, mines and quarries, are, in normal circumstances and in their final result, a charge on the ownership of the property; but owing to the system of collecting the rates from the occupiers, the economic process by which the tax ordinarily reaches its destination is liable to be arrested or disturbed, and the tax will then remain wholly or partly a burden on the occupiers. (2) In the case of dwelling-houses the rates remain where they are first placed, and are in reality an income tax on the occupiers. (3) Shops and other business premises apparently occupy an intermediate position, but with a tendency to approximate to the position of farm-lands, mines and quarries. The rates must fall upon the freeholder in the long run, unless the shopkeeper or other occupier can add to the prices of his goods a sum sufficient to clear the expense. His ability to do this will partly depend upon the amount of the rates in neighboring towns and elsewhere, and partly upon his possessing a local market not liable to invasion from a distance. G. H. BLUNDEN. NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE, ENGLAND. [Concluded in the following number.] ANALYSIS OF EXPENDITURE OUT OF POOR RATES AND RECEIPTS IN AID THEREOF, 1890-91. (From Local Taxation Returns, 1890–91.) Payments for county, borough or police rates, as per column 3, Table II, 933,516 £8,643,318 6,171,171 720,246 column 5, Table II, . TABLE II. GENERAL VIEW OF CERTAIN BRANCHES OF LOCAL TAXATION FROM 1747 TO 1890. (Compiled chiefly from the reports of the Poor Law Board and Local Government Board.) NET COST POOR RELIEF. £ PAID TO BOROUGH, £ OTHER PAYMENTS £ HIGHWAY RATES CHURCH RATES POPULATION. LEVIED. LEVIED. £ £ * Inclusive of estimated value of statute labor, £535,000. (See note 1, page 85.) 135,645,473 152,116,008 ↑ Including rents of estates. See Lord Monteagle's Draft Report on Burdens on Land, 1846, p. 26, in which the gross amounts for 1831 and 1838-39 are given as £446,247 and £263,103, respectively. The figures in this column for 1839, 1850 and 1860 are taken from Mr. Goschen's Report on Local Taxation, 1870, p. 71. See Table 1. The highway rates in the above table are, in the later years, exclusive of urban areas, for which no separate highway rates are levied. For total highway and street expenditure see Table VII. 1,674,848 $1,322,091 11,996 25,714,288 5,723 29,001,018 TABLE III. Being a copy of that given by the Poor Law Commissioners in their report of 1843 on local taxation, and showing the nature and amounts of the local taxes at that date, so far as they could be ascertained, exclusive of poor rates, county rates, highway rates and church rates, for which see Table II. The revenue of the municipal corporations, remodeled under the 5 and 6 Wm. IV., c. 76, consisting of Rates and other receipts in 1840-41, was City of London revenue for 1841 *£989,740 188,521 1,659,154 162,717 57,668 unknown £3,057,800 TABLE IV. Being a copy of House of Commons Return, No. 430, year 1870, showing the direct local taxation levied in England and Wales in the year ended March 25, 1868. 981,140 714,734 152,076 376,650 £16,783,220 5. Lighting and watching rate (exc. Metropolis) 6. Improvement commissioners (exc. Metropolis). 7. General district rates (exc. Metropolis) 8. General and lighting rates in the Metropolis 9. Rates under courts or commissioners of sewers (including *So far as this consists of rates it is embraced in column 3, Table II. |