";s:4:"text";s:7932:" [35] The thirtieth part of this capital of £ 1,300,000,000 is L 43,333,333 which the part that will revolve every year by deaths in that country to new possessors; and the sum that will annually revolve in France in the proportion of four to one, will be about one hundred and seventy-three millions sterling. The great mass of the poor in countries are become an hereditary race, and it is next to impossible them to get out of that state of themselves.
[24] I have already established the principle, namely, that the earth, in its natural uncultivated state was, and ever would have continued to be, the common property of the human race; that in that state, every person would have been born to property; and that the system of landed property, by its inseparable connection with cultivation, and with what is called civilized life, has absorbed the property of all those whom it dispossessed, without providing, as ought to have been done, an indemnification for that loss. * It is absolutely the opposite of what it should be, and it is necessary that a revolution should be made in it. I have no idea it would be accepted by many persons who had a yearly income of two or three hundred pounds sterling. [49] To show that this will be the case, it is sufficient to observe that the operation and effect of the plan will, in all cases, be the same as if every individual were voluntarily to make his will and dispose of his property in the manner here proposed.
Paine issued this pamphlet as a proposal to the French Government, at a time when readjustment of landed property had become necessary through the Revolution.
But there are, nevertheless, distinct species of rights, and will continue to be, so long as the earth endures. The reasonableness of it can be seen by all.
Tom Paine National Historical Association Archive Index
Tom Paine National Historical Association Archive Index
But when a system of civilization, (growing out of that system of government) shall be so organized that not a man or woman born in the Republic but shall inherit some means of beginning the world, and see before them the certainty of escaping the miseries that under other governments accompany old age, the Revolution of France will have an advocate and an ally in the heart of all nations.
[06] It is always possible to go from the natural to the civilized state, but it is never possible to go from the civilized to the natural state. IN THE same year (1797) that the pamphlet on "Agrarian Justice" was printed in English, by W. Adlard in Paris, an edition was brought out in London by Thomas Williams, who was prosecuted by the Crown for publishing Paine's "Age of Reason." It is important as being a precursor of the single tax movement, popularized by Henry George, in his "Progress and Poverty," a century later. In advocating the case of the persons thus dispossessed, it is a right, and not a charity, that I am pleading for. .
It was suggested to him by a sermon published by the Bishop of Llandaff, on "The Wisdom and Goodness of God in having made both rich and poor." It was suggested to him by a sermon published by the Bishop of Llandaff, on "The Wisdom and Goodness of God in having made both rich and poor." To 90,000 persons of 21 yrs.,
But it is impossible to enjoy affluence with the felicity it is capable of being enjoyed, while so much misery is mingled in the scene. To the numerous class dispossessed of their natural inheritance by the system of landed property it will be an act of national justice.
[27] Taking it then for granted that no person ought to be in a worse condition when born under what is called a state of civilization, than he would have been had he been born in a state of nature, and that civilization ought to have made, and ought still to make, provision for that purpose, it can only be done by subtracting from property a portion equal in value to the natural inheritance it has absorbed. [58] I have made the calculations stated in this plan, upon what is called personal, as well as upon landed property. As this estimate of a national capital is prepared ready to my hand, I take it as a datum to act upon. THIS tract, as Paine calls it, is identified with the Theophilanthropic movement which Paine started in Paris, in 1786-7,and later introduced in America.
[50] But it is justice, and not charity, that is the principle of the plan.
Paine had left Paris early in May of 1797, planning to accompany James Monroe and his wife to America, but reaching Havre, and suspecting danger of capture by an English warship should he sail, discreetly remained in France. The English title adds a brief resumé of Paine's scheme to the caption--"Agrarian Justice opposed to Agrarian Law and to Agrarian Monopoly." come from a national fund to be financed by a 10 percent
He may give all that he has, and that all will relieve but little. It is both reasonable and generous to suppose, that persons not under immediate necessity, will suspend their right of drawing on the fund, until it acquire, as it will do, a greater degree of ability.
From £ 13,333,333 at ten per cent with the \
Admitting then that a tenth part declined receiving it, the amount would stand thus:
Each canton shall elect in its primary assemblies, three persons, as commissioners for that canton, who shall take cognizance, and keep a register of all matters happening in that canton, conformable to the charter that shall be established by law for carrying this plan into execution. £15 ster. To all such the plan is advantageous. [46] I care not how affluent some may be, provided that none be miserable in consequence of it.
This can best be done by making every person when arrived at the age of twenty-one years an inheritor of something to begin with. When the amount of the property of any deceased persons shall be ascertained, the principal heir to that property, or the eldest of the co-heirs, if of lawful age, or if under age, the person authorized by the ill of the deceased to represent him or them, shall give bond to the commissioners of the canton to pay the said tenth part thereof in four equal quarterly payments, within the space of one year or sooner, at the choice of the payers.
1,350,000
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The frequent contentions at that time about the use of a well in the dry country of Arabia, where those people lived, also show that there was no landed property.
As the inheritors of property must always take up their bonds in four quarterly payments, or sooner if they choose, there will always be numeraire arriving at the bank after the expiration of the first quarter, to exchange for the bank notes that shall be brought in.
But after the expiration of the first year, the inheritors of property may pay ten per cent either in bank notes issued upon the fund, or in numeraire. ."
It was suggested to him by a sermon published by the Bishop of Llandaff, on "The Wisdom and Goodness of God in having made both rich and poor."
When wealth and splendor, instead of fascinating the multitude, excite emotions of disgust; n, instead of drawing forth admiration, it is beheld as an insult on wretchedness; when the ostentatious appearance it makes serves call the right of it in question, the case of property becomes critical, and it is only in a system of justice that the possessor can contemplate security.