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Subject Area: Law

Bentham to Charles Long. - Jeremy Bentham, The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 10 (Memoirs Part I and Correspondence) [1843]

Edition used:

The Works of Jeremy Bentham, published under the Superintendence of his Executor, John Bowring (Edinburgh: William Tait, 1838-1843). 11 vols. Vol. 10.

Part of: The Works of Jeremy Bentham, 11 vols.

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Bentham to Charles Long.

“Q. S. P., October 1st, 1794.

“Dear Sir,—

You are now a holiday-making,—I wish you as much sport as you have afforded me satisfaction. To vary your pastime, which, perhaps, may be found not unsuitable to the place, permit me to present you with a riddle.

“What is that pecuniary resource, of which the tenth part would be a tax, and that a heavy one, while the whole is no tax, and would not be felt by anybody?

“The solution lies with the copyist; I hope it will be sent.—I am, dear sir, your most obedient and much obliged humble servant.”

“Hendon, Middlesex, October 13th, 1794.

“Sir,—If the pecuniary resource I ventured t’other day to submit to you, should be deemed ineligible or impracticable, perhaps in some other instance I may be more fortunate. I have two other such resources upon the anvil,—the one involving a burthen indeed, but that burthen coupled with an indemnity capable of balancing it, and sooner or later even of outweighing it: the other absolutely pure from all burthen from the very beginning. The first is already with the copyist: the principle of it has been exemplified in the first instance upon a single denomination of persons: but it is a pregnant one, and if approved may yield a score or two of other taxes. The other has been already travelled through, and wants only to be digested a little. Neither will trespass so much upon your patience, in point of quantity of reading, as the proposal about escheat: both together will not equal it in produce. Proposing without justifying is nothing: I could not bring myself to hazard either proposal, till I had, to my own conception, established it upon principles. Resources new in specie are hardly to be found; but it will be something if any such as are justly approved in specie can be rendered new in point of extent, or any that have undergone unmerited disgrace can be restored to favour and to practice by being placed in a new light.

“Thus occupied, I have thought it an escape not to have received a summons as yet about my own particular business: it has been laid upon the shelf for the chance, faint as it may be, of being of use by your assistance in a line of superior importance. I would, therefore, beg the favour of you to allow me two clear days notice: for it will take me one day to abridge the memorial, and another to get it copied.

“On the former occasion I trespassed on the gravity of your situation by the present of a riddle. Permit me now to reconduct you to the style of the subject by a grave apophthegm,—Supply without burthen is victory without blood. The application of it is what I have been pushing as far as time and faculties would carry me.

“If either use or amusement should, on your part, have paid for the trouble of reading all this, mine in writing it will have been overpaid.—I have the honour to be, with all respect, dear sir, your most obedient and humble servant.”

Of these financial projects, the following resumé was prepared by the author:—

Proposal for an unburthensome augmentation of the Revenue, by an extension of the Law of Escheat.* Proposal for an unburthensome augmentation of the Revenue, by an extension of the traffic in money on Government account, to divers modifications of demand, in addition to those to which it has already been extended, on the part either of Government,* corporate bodies,† or individuals‡ : whereunto might be added a tax on such as cannot be carried on with so much advantage on Government account, as on account of individuals.

To which is prefixed, an Inquiry, in answer to the question,—What lucrative occupations are capable of being carried on with advantage on the account of Government?§

Proposal for an unburthensome augmentation of the Revenue, as well as for the removal of divers impediments to industry, more especially inventive industry, and superior workmanship, by licences conferring the several faculties undermentioned, viz.:—

  • 1. On the part of the moneyed man, faculty of investing a limited sum in trade or manufacture, in consideration of a share of the profits* —hence, on the part of the manufacturer or trader, a capacity of obtaining capital on such terms.
  • 2. Faculty of lending and borrowing capital at a rate exceeding 5 per cent., the present legal rate of interest.
  • 3. Faculty of obtaining Patents for inventions without the present expense, on security given for allowing government an annual consideration in the way of annuity or share of profits.**
  • 4. Faculty of exercising a trade without having served an apprenticeship.††
  • 5. Faculty of obtaining protection for the reputation of superior workmanship against counterfeits, by a man’s registering his name and marks as put upon his goods: counterfeiting the same to be thereupon punishable as forgery.

On the pamphlet on Escheat there is the following, dated 23d October, 1794, from

[* ] Already submitted.

[* ] Examples:—

1. Sale of perpetual redeemable Annuities, (the common mode of what is called borrowing.)

2. Sale of Life Annuities for lives of purchasers.

3. Sale of Annuities for long and short terms.

4. Sale of Annuities, with benefit of Survivorship—Tontine.

5. Sale of chances of large sums for small sums—Lotteries.

[† ] Examples:—

1. Business of the Amicable Society.

2. Business of the Equitable Society.

3. Business of the Friendly Societies.

[‡ ] Examples:—

1. Insurance of life against life.

2. Purchase of Life Annuities for sellers’ lives, on mere personal security, or doubtful real security. Quere—If the tax would be eligible being a tax upon distress?

[§ ] Example of profit by the conjunction of the business of buying Life Annuities for the lives of sellers, with that of selling Life Annuities for the lives of purchasers:—

RECEIPT—
For £50,000 a-year, sold for the lives of purchasers, at fourteen years’ purchase£700,000
DISBURSEMENT—
For ditto, bought for the lives of sellers, at eight years’ purchase, (lives of equal goodness)400,000
Profit£300,000

N.B.—In this proposal are given inter alia:—

1. Reasons for apprehending that the Friendly Societies will, in general, scarce be able to make good the half of what they are likely to undertake for.

2. Reasons why the honour of Government is concerned in procuring a complete stock of the requisite data, without which all calculations, relative to the values of Life Annuities in general, and in the instance of the Friendly Societies in particular, must be fallacious—viz. a complete and authentic set of statistical Returns, showing the proportion of deaths to inhabitants in the several parishes throughout the kingdom.

3. Reasons why it would be of advantage as well to the individuals particularly concerned as to the public in general, that Government should take the business of the Friendly Societies into its own hands, that part which concerns the insurance against sickness only excepted.

[* ] At present, by a construction of common law, a man cannot lend a penny upon such terms, without risking his whole fortune.

In Ireland, relief is given to a certain degree against this inconvenience, by a statute of about ten years’ standing.

[¶ ] For Great Britain, between £200 and £300, in the least expensive case.

[** ] This would operate as a saving of so much capital.

N.B. Full indemnification to the several offices concerned.

The three legal restraints against which these three faculties afford relief, form together an almost total prohibition of inventive industry on the part of at least 19 individuals out of 20.

[†† ] In the instance of all four faculties, the license to be registered.