But of all things, this representation, to be
measured by contribution, is the most difficult to settle upon
principles of equity in a country which considers its districts as
members of a whole. For a great city, such as Bordeaux or Paris,
appears to pay a vast body of duties, almost out of all assignable
proportion to other places, and its mass is considered accordingly.
But are these cities the true contributors in that proportion? No. The
consumers of the commodities imported into Bordeaux, who are scattered
through all France, pay the import duties of Bordeaux. The produce
of the vintage in Guienne and Languedoc give to that city the means of
its contribution growing out of an export commerce. The landholders
who spend their estates in Paris, and are thereby the creators of that
city, contribute for Paris from the provinces out of which their
revenues arise. Very nearly the same arguments will apply to the
representative share given on account of direct contributions, because
the direct contribution must be assessed on wealth, real or
presumed; and that local wealth will itself arise from causes not
local, and which therefore in equity ought not to produce a local
preference.
It is very remarkable that in this fundamental regulation which
settles the representation of the mass upon the direct contribution,
they have not yet settled how that direct contribution shall be
laid, and how apportioned.
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