ABSTRACT
Interest is a fixed quantity, most often equal in all similar markets, independent of events,3 which, in its similarities with land rent, would seem to be a good object of taxation. But the transfer of capital is a private transaction that government has almost no means to discover. Every tax, on the contrary, is public by nature; a tax on income, on the profits of business, would give the public a measure of the fortunes of all businessmen, and this is what they fear the most; generally they would not hesitate to submit to the most arbitrary taxes, rather than to expose themselves to an inquiry into their fortunes which would bring their secret to the light of day. The text generally uses the terms “negociants,” “marchands and “commerce,” indicating that Sismondi had mostly the trading fraternity in mind, his former associates, who were prominent in Geneva.
