Misplaced Pages

#590409

28-410: Pierre Le Pesant, sieur de Boisguilbert and Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban were early advocates for a single tax, but, rejecting the claim that land has certain economic properties which make it uniquely suitable for taxation, they instead proposed a flat tax on all incomes . In the late 19th and early 20th century, a populist single tax movement emerged which also sought to levy a single tax on

56-408: A close study of local economic conditions, personally, supervising the cultivation of his lands, and entering into relations with the principal merchants of Rouen. He was thus led to consider the misery of the people under the burden of taxation . In 1695 he published his principal work, Le détail de la France; la cause de la diminution de ses biens et la facilité du remède . In it he drew a picture of

84-461: A consistently ethical and non-distortionary means to fund the essential operations of government, the surplus rent being distributed as a type of guaranteed basic income , traditionally called the citizen's dividend , to compensate those members of society who by legal title have been deprived of an equal share of the earth's spatial value and equal access to natural opportunities (see geolibertarianism ). Related taxes derived in principle from

112-451: A single tax based on other revenue models, such as the FairTax proposal for a consumption tax and various flat tax proposals on personal incomes. Pierre Le Pesant, sieur de Boisguilbert Pierre le Pesant, sieur de Boisguilbert or Boisguillebert ( French: [bwaɡilbɛʁ] ; 17 February 1646 – 10 October 1714) was a French lawmaker and a Jansenist , one of

140-546: The Ferme Générale was established, a franchised customs and excise operation in which individuals bought the right to collect the taille on behalf of the king, through six-year adjudications (some taxes, including the aides and the gabelle , had been farmed out in this way as early as 1604). The major tax collectors in that system were known as the fermiers généraux ("farmers-general", in English). Efficient tax collection

168-542: The Quatre-Vallées ; these recently acquired provinces had been able to maintain a certain local autonomy in terms of taxation), the assessment of the tax was established by local councils and the tax was generally " real ", meaning that it was attached to non-noble lands (that is, even nobles possessing such lands were required to pay taxes on them). Finally, pays d'imposition were recently conquered lands which had their own local historical institutions (they were similar to

196-465: The pays d'état under which they are sometimes grouped), although taxation was overseen by the royal intendant . In an attempt to reform the fiscal system, new administrative divisions were created in the 16th century. The Recettes générales , commonly known as généralités and overseen in the beginning by receveurs généraux or généraux conseillers (royal tax collectors), were initially only taxation districts. Their role steadily increased and by

224-595: The taille became permanent in 1439, when the right to collect taxes in support of a standing army was granted to Charles VII of France during the Hundred Years' War . Unlike modern income taxes, the total amount of the taille was first set (after the Estates General was suspended in 1484) by the French king from year to year, and this amount was then apportioned among the various provinces for collection. Exempted from

252-480: The taille reached a record 21 million livres (a period of high inflation), before dropping. The taille was only one of a number of taxes. There also existed the "taillon" (a tax for military expenditures), a national salt tax (the gabelle ), a tax on consumer goods usually used to pay for fortifications (the maltôte ), national tariffs (the "aides") on various products (including wine), local tariffs on specialty products (the "douane") or levied on products entering

280-494: The tax farmers and found little support. Indeed, his work, written in a diffuse and inelegant style, passed almost unnoticed. Saint-Simon relates that he once asked a hearing of the comte de Pontchartrain , saying that he would at first take him for a fool, then he would see that he deserved attention, and that eventually, he would be satisfied with his system. Pontchartrain, who was besieged with innumerable advice givers, began to laugh replying that he would go no further than

308-491: The "pays d'état" won reduced rates, and the parlements halted new income statements, effectively making the "vingtième" a far less efficient tax than it was designed to be. The financial needs of the Seven Years' War led to a second (1756–1780), and then a third (1760–1763) "vingtième" being created. In 1754 the "vingtième" produced 11.7 million livres. The taille was used very heavily by the French to fund their many wars like

SECTION 10

#1732851219591

336-415: The "vingtième" (or "one-twentieth"), was enacted to reduce the royal deficit, and this tax continued through the ancien régime. This tax was based solely on revenues (5% of net earnings from land, property, commerce, industry and from official offices), and was meant to reach all citizens regardless of status, but the clergy, the regions with "pays d'état" and the parlements protested; the clergy won exemption,

364-593: The French crown; some of these provinces had had the equivalent autonomy of a pays d'état in an earlier period, but had lost it through the effects of royal reforms) the assessment and collection of taxes were entrusted to elected officials (at least originally; later, these positions were bought), and the tax was generally "personal", meaning it was attached to non-noble individuals. In the pays d'état ("provinces with provincial estates" Brittany , Languedoc , Burgundy , Auvergne , Béarn , Dauphiné , Provence , and such portions of Gascony as Bigorre , Comminges , and

392-411: The city (the "octroi") or sold at fairs, and local taxes. Finally, the church benefited from a mandatory tax or tithe called the "dîme". Louis XIV created several additional tax systems, including the "capitation" (begun in 1695) which touched every person including nobles and the clergy (although exemption could be bought for a large one-time sum) and the "dixième" (1710–1717, restarted in 1733), which

420-601: The first, and turned his back on him. With Michel de Chamillart , whom he had known as intendant of Rouen (1689–1690), there was a plan to experiment with Boisguilbert's ideas in one province but the plan was abandoned when it was realized that the effort would provoke the collapse of the existing tax system before the experiment began. Upon the publication of Vauban's , La Dîme royale in 1707 which had much in common with Boisguilbert's plan, Boisguilbert published Supplément au détail de la France . Both Vauban's and Boisguilbert's books were condemned. In addition, Boisguilbert

448-418: The general ruin of all classes of Frenchmen, caused by the bad economic regime. In opposition to Colbert 's mercantilist views he held that the wealth of a country consists, not in the abundance of money which it possesses but in what it produces and exchanges. The remedy for the evils of the time was not so much the reduction as the equalization of the imposts, which would allow the poor to consume more, raise

476-599: The inventors of the notion of an economic market . He was born at Rouen of an ancient noble family of Normandy , allied to that of Corneille . He received his classical education in Rouen, and was also taught at the Petites écoles de Port-Royal , entered the magistracy and became judge at Montivilliers , near Le Havre . In 1690 he became president of the bailliage of Rouen, a post which he retained almost until his death, leaving it to his son. In his two leadership positions he made

504-480: The land value tax include Pigouvian taxes to internalize the external costs of pollution more efficiently than litigation, as well as severance taxes on raw material extraction to regulate the depletion of unreplenishable natural resources and to prevent irreparable damage to valuable ecosystems through unsustainable practices such as overfishing . There have been other proposals for a single tax concerning property, goods, or income. Others have made proposals for

532-454: The mid 17th century, the généralités were under the authority of an intendant , and they became a vehicle for the expansion of royal power in matters of justice, taxation, and policing. By the outbreak of the Revolution, there were 36 généralités; the last two were created as recently as 1784. Until the late 17th century, tax collectors were called receveurs royaux . In 1680, the system of

560-420: The production and add to the general wealth. He demanded the reform of the taille , the suppression of internal customs duties and greater freedom of trade. In his Factum de la France , published in 1705 or 1706, he gave a more concise résumé of his ideas. But his proposal to substitute for all aides and customs duties a single capitation tax of a tenth of the revenue of all property was naturally opposed by

588-467: The rental value of land and natural resources, but for somewhat different reasons. This "Single Tax" movement later became known as Georgism , after its most famous proponent Henry George . It proposed a simplified and equitable tax system that upholds natural rights and whose revenue is based exclusively on ground and natural resource rents , with no additional taxation of improvements such as buildings. Some libertarians advocate land value capture as

SECTION 20

#1732851219591

616-413: The tax were clergy and nobles (except for non-noble lands they held in "pays d'état" [see below]), officers of the crown, military personnel, magistrates, university professors and students, and franchises ( villes franches ) such as Paris. The provinces were of three sorts, the pays d'élection , the pays d'état and the pays d'imposition . In the pays d'élection (the longest held possessions of

644-506: The tax, and regularly appeal the assessments. As capitation was paid at the place of residence, rich landlords with many estates, and those who lived in Paris or at the Court of Versailles , could evade it. The duc d'Orleans famously bragged about setting his own rate: "I work things out with the intendants; I pay more or less what I like." In 1749, under Louis XV , a new tax based on the "dixième",

672-522: Was a direct land tax on the French peasantry and non-nobles in Ancien Régime France. The tax was imposed on each household and was based on how much land it held, and was paid directly to the state. Originally only an "exceptional" tax (i.e. imposed and collected in times of need, as the king was expected to survive on the revenues of the " domaine royal ", or lands that belonged to him directly),

700-473: Was a true tax on income and on property value and was meant to support the military. Every Frenchman, except the Dauphin of France and paupers were subject to the capitation tax. Noble capitation was assessed by the intendant of the generality, and at first it was established that the nobility pay 1/90 of their annual income. This was not always the case, however, as many of the nobility had the means to lobby against

728-435: Was exiled to Auvergne for six months. At last in 1710 the controller-general, Nicolas Desmarets , established a new tax, the tenth ( dixième ), which had some analogy with the project of Boisguilbert. Instead of replacing the former taxes, however, Desmarets simply added his dixième to them. In 1712 appeared a Testament politique de M. de Vauban , which is simply Boisguilberts Détail de la France . Vauban's Dîme royale

756-651: Was formerly wrongly attributed to him. Boisguilberts works were collected by Daire in the first volume of the Collection des grands économistes . His letters are in the Correspondance des contrôleurs géneraux , vol. i., published by A. M. de Boislisle . A complete study of Boisguilbert, his ideas and his writings was published by the Institut National d'Études Démographiques in 1966. Taille The taille ( French pronunciation: [taj] )

784-487: Was one of the major causes for French administrative and royal centralization in the Early Modern period . The taille became a major source of royal income (roughly half in the 1570s), the most important direct tax of pre- Revolutionary France, and provided for the growing cost of warfare in the 15th and 16th centuries. Records show the taille increasing from 2.5 million livres in 1515 to six million after 1551; in 1589

#590409