Richard Cobden (3 giug 1804 anni – 2 apr 1865 anni)

Descrizione:

UK MP “You who shall liberate the land will do more for your country than we have done in the liberation of its trade.”

"For a period of 150 years after the [Norman] Conquest the whole of the revenue of the country was derived from the land. During the next 150 years it yielded 19 twentieths of the revenue — for the next century it was 9 tenths. During the next 70 years to the reign of Mary it fell to about three fourths. From this time to the end of the Commonwealth, land appeared to have yielded one half of the revenue. Down to the reign of Anne it was one fourth. In the reign it was one seventh. From 1793 to 1816 (during the period of the land Tax) land contributed one ninth, from which time to 1845 one twenty-fifth only has been derived from the land. Thus the land which anciently paid the whole of taxation pays now only a fraction, notwithstanding the immense increase in the amount of the rentals… The people had fared better under the despotic monarchs than when the power of the state had fallen into the hands of a landed oligarchy who had first exempted themselves from taxation, and next claimed compensation for themselves by a corn law for their heavy and peculiar burdens.”

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