We read in The Spirit of Laws* that taxation by head

is more appropriate to servitude奴役 and that real?

taxes are more suitable to freedom.

Of all the other imposts稅, the charge on land or real tax has

always been considered as the most convenient in countries

where more regard注意(n.) is paid to the amount produced, and the

reliability of collection, than to reducing the burden on the

people.

The taxation of land or corn, especially when it is done to

excess無(wú)節(jié)制的/過(guò)量的, has two drawbacks缺點(diǎn) so terrible that?

in time they are bound to depopulate and ruin any country in?

which it is established.

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The first is due to the lack of circulation of money, for

commerce and industry attract吸引 into the capital首都/資本家 all the?

money from the countryside, while taxation destroys the proportion★均衡

that might still exist between the labourer's needs and the price

of his corn, so that money flows in constantly and never

returns;

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the richer the city, the poorer the country.?

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The product of the real taxes goes out of the hands of the ruler?

or financier into those of the tradesman or merchant; and the

farmer, who receives only the smallest fraction小部分 of it, finally

exhausts himself by always paying out the same amount and

always getting less back.

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The second drawback is due to what seems to be a benefit,

but one that allows the damage to grow worse before it is

noticed：

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It is that corn is a product which is not made more expensive?

by tax in the countries where it is grown, and which,despite?

its absolute necessity, diminishes in quantity without

increasing in price;*

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the result being that many die of hunger

even though corn remains cheap, and the farmer?

alone remains liable有義務(wù)的 for the tax, which he has not?

been able to take from the proceeds of his sales.?

The tax on things cannot be discussed in the same terms as?

dues稅 by which the prices of all kinds of merchandise商品 are?

increased, and which are consequently paid by the customer?

rather than the merchant. （？？？）

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For such dues, however high, are nonetheless voluntary, and?

are paid by the merchant only (in proportion to★與...成比例)

the goods that he buys; and since he buys only in proportion

to his sales, he adjusts the price to the individual customer.?

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But the farmer who, whether he makes any sales or not, is obliged

to pay tax at a fixed rate on the land he cultivates, ★is not in a

position to wait for the price of his goods to be fixed at the level

that suits him, and even if he were not to sell them in order to

maintain himself, ★he would be forced to sell them in order to pay

the tax, so that sometimes it is the enormous巨大的 tax that keeps the

price of the goods at a low level.

Note注意 also that the resources of commerce and industry do

not make the tax on land any more tolerable because of the

abundance of money, but instead make it more onerous繁重的.

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while the greater or lesser quantity of money in a state?

can bring it more or less credit externally外表上, it does not?

change the real prosperity of the citizens in any way, and?

makes them neither more or less wealthy.?

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1.unless the state has an excess of goods, and the abundance

of money comes from sales abroad, the towns in which trading

takes place are the only places in which its abundance has any

effect, while all it does for the peasant is to make him relatively

poorer;?

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2.with the growth in the supply of money,?

the price of everything goes up, so that taxes necessarily?

go up in the same proportion, and the labourer finds himself

paying higher taxes without having greater resources.