第 65 节
作者:嘟嘟      更新:2021-04-30 16:07      字数:9321
  more than an equal annuity for a separate life; and from the
  confidence which every man naturally has in his own good fortune;
  the principle upon which is founded the success of all lotteries;
  such an annuity generally sells for something more than it is
  worth。 In countries where it is usual for government to raise
  money by granting annuities; tontines are upon this account
  generally preferred to annuities for separate lives。 The
  expedient which will raise most money is almost always preferred
  to that which is likely to bring about in the speediest manner
  the liberation of the public revenue。
  In France a much greater proportion of the public debts
  consists in annuities for lives than in England。 According to a
  memoir presented by the Parliament of Bordeaux to the king in
  1764; the whole public debt of France is estimated at twenty…four
  hundred millions of livres; of which the capital for which
  annuities for lives had been granted is supposed to amount to
  three hundred millions; the eighth part of the whole public debt。
  The annuities themselves are computed to amount to thirty
  millions a year; the fourth part of one hundred and twenty
  millions; the supposed interest of that whole debt。 These
  estimations; I know very well; are not exact; but having been
  presented by so very respectable a body as approximations to the
  truth; they may; I apprehend; be considered as such。 It is not
  the different degrees of anxiety in the two governments of France
  and England for the liberation of the public revenue which
  occasions this difference in their respective modes of borrowing。
  It arises altogether from the different views and interests of
  the lenders。
  In England; the seat of government being in the greatest
  mercantile city in the world; the merchants are generally the
  people who advance money to government。 By advancing it they do
  not mean to diminish; but; on the contrary; to increase their
  mercantile capitals; and unless they expected to sell with some
  profit their share in the subscription for a new loan; they never
  would subscribe。 But if by advancing their money they were to
  purchase; instead of perpetual annuities; annuities for lives
  only; whether their own or those of other people; they would not
  always be so likely to sell them with a profit。 Annuities upon
  their own lives they would always sell with loss; because no man
  will give for an annuity upon the life of another; whose age and
  state of health are nearly the same with his own; the same price
  which he would give for one upon his own。 An annuity upon the
  life of a third person; indeed; is; no doubt; of equal value to
  the buyer and the seller; but its real value begins to diminish
  from the moment it is granted; and continues to do so more and
  more as long as it subsists。 It can never; therefore; make so
  convenient a transferable stock as a perpetual annuity; of which
  the real value may be supposed always the same; or very nearly
  the same。
  In France; the seat of government not being in a great
  mercantile city; merchants do not make so great a proportion of
  the people who advance money to government。 The people concerned
  in the finances; the farmers general; the receivers of the taxes
  which are not in farm; the court bankers; etc。; make the greater
  part of those who advance their money in all public exigencies。
  Such people are commonly men of mean birth; but of great wealth;
  and frequently of great pride。 They are too proud to marry their
  equals; and women of quality disdain to marry them。 They
  frequently resolve; therefore; to live bachelors; and having
  neither any families of their own; nor much regard for those of
  their relations; whom they are not always very fond of
  acknowledging; they desire only to live in splendour during their
  own time; and are not unwilling that their fortune should end
  with themselves。 The number of rich people; besides; who are
  either averse to marry; or whose condition of life renders it
  either improper or inconvenient for them to do so; is much
  greater in France than in England。 To such people; who have
  little or no care for posterity; nothing can be more convenient
  than to exchange their capital for a revenue which is to last
  just as long; and no longer; than they wish it to do。
  The ordinary expense of the greater part of modern
  governments in time of peace being equal or nearly equal to their
  ordinary revenue; when war comes they are both unwilling and
  unable to increase their revenue in proportion to the increase of
  their expense。 They are unwilling for fear of offending the
  people; who; by so great and so sudden an increase of taxes;
  would soon be disgusted with the war; and they are unable from
  not well knowing what taxes would be sufficient to produce the
  revenue wanted。 The facility of borrowing delivers them from the
  embarrassment which this fear and inability would otherwise
  occasion。 By means of borrowing they are enabled; with a very
  moderate increase of taxes; to raise; from year to year; money
  sufficient for carrying on the war; and by the practice of
  perpetually funding they are enabled; with the smallest possible
  increase of taxes; to raise annually the largest possible sum of
  money。 In great empires the people who live in the capital; and
  in the provinces remote from the scene of action; feel; many of
  them; scarce any inconveniency from the war; but enjoy; at their
  ease; the amusement of reading in the newspapers the exploits of
  their own fleets and armies。 To them this amusement compensates
  the small difference between the taxes which they pay on account
  of the war; and those which they had been accustomed to pay in
  time of peace。 They are commonly dissatisfied with the return of
  peace; which puts an end to their amusement; and to a thousand
  visionary hopes of conquest and national glory from a longer
  continuance of the war。
  The return of peace; indeed; seldom relieves them from the
  greater part of the taxes imposed during the war。 These are
  mortgaged for the interest of the debt contracted in order to
  carry it on。 If; over and above paying the interest of this debt;
  and defraying the ordinary expense of government; the old
  revenue; together with the new taxes; produce some surplus
  revenue; it may perhaps be converted into a sinking fund for
  paying off the debt。 But; in the first place; this sinking fund;
  even supposing it should be applied to no other purpose; is
  generally altogether inadequate for paying; in the course of any
  period during which it can reasonably be expected that peace
  should continue; the whole debt contracted during the war; and;
  in the second place; this fund is almost always applied to other
  purposes。
  The new taxes were imposed for the sole purpose of paying
  the interest of the money borrowed upon them。 If they produce
  more; it is generally something which was neither intended nor
  expected; and is therefore seldom very considerable。 Sinking
  funds have generally arisen not so much from any surplus of the
  taxes which was over and above what was necessary for paying the
  interest or annuity originally charged upon them; as from a
  subsequent reduction of that interest。 That of Holland in 1655;
  and that of the ecclesiastical state in 1685; were both formed in
  this manner。 Hence the usual insufficiency of such funds。
  During the most profound peace various events occur which
  require an extraordinary expense; and government finds it always
  more convenient to defray this expense by misapplying the sinking
  fund than by imposing a new tax。 Every new tax is immediately
  felt more or less by the people。 It occasions always some murmur;
  and meets with some opposition。 The more taxes may have been
  multiplied; the higher they may have been raised upon every
  different subject of taxation; the more loudly the people
  complain of every new tax; the more difficult it becomes; too;
  either to find out new subjects of taxation; or to raise much
  higher the taxes already imposed upon the old。 A momentary
  suspension of the payment of debt is not immediately felt by the
  people; and occasions neither murmur nor complaint。 To borrow of
  the sinking fund is always an obvious and easy expedient for
  getting out of the present difficulty。 The more the public debts
  may have been accumulated; the more necessary it may have become
  to study to reduce them; the more dangerous; the more ruinous it
  may be to misapply any part of the sinking fund; the less likely
  is the public debt to be reduced to any considerable degree; the
  more likely; the more certainly is the sinking fund to be
  misapplied towards defraying all the extraordinary expenses which
  occur in time of peace。 When a nation is already overburdened
  with taxes; nothing but the necessities of a new war; nothing but
  either the animosity of national vengeance; or the anxiety for
  national security; can induce the people to submit; with
  tolerable