ABSTRACT
§ 1. The last three chapters have been devoted to a discussion of the economic effects of taxation. It is upon the balance, or aggregate, of such effects that tax systems must be judged from the point of view of economy. How far taxation should be carried, and how great use should be made of particular taxes, can only be decided, as was argued in Chapter II, by considerations of the maximum social advantage to be derived from the operations of public finance as a whole. There is no desirable limit to the increase of any particular tax, except that the social loss, if any, from such an increase should not be greater than the social loss from an equivalent increase in any other practicable tax. There are no desirable limits to the increase of taxation in general, except that the social loss from such an increase should not be greater than the social loss of raising further public income by some other methods than that of taxation. 109 The chief of such other methods, apart from borrowing which is discussed in Part IV, will be considered in the next two chapters.
