ABSTRACT
§ 1. THE distinction drawn between ‘ costs’ and ‘ surplus/ and the principle of a taxing-policy based upon it, will probably appear at first sight too ‘theoretic’ for practical politicians. Granted the general accuracy of the distinction, it will be urged, how are we to apply it in the com-, plicated affairs of the actual business world? How are we to ascertain the sorts and the amounts of ‘surplus,’ and to disengage them for taxation from the ‘costs’ with which they are associated? Moreover, no State can ‘ scrap’ its existing taxing-system and construct a brand-new one on these theoretic lines. We are deeply committed to certain taxes, whose productive value has a large body of experience to support them. We cannot throw them aside and take up new ones improvised in order to attach the various elements of ‘surplus,’
