0, he pays nothing out of 100 francs
of income to the seignior or to the clergy; he pays but little to the
State, only 21 francs to the commune and department, and keeps 79 francs
in his pocket.[3226]

If each franc insured pays so many centimes insurance premium, each
franc of manual gain and of salary should pay as many centimes as each
franc of industrial or commercial gain, also as each franc of personal
or land revenue; that is to say, more than one-fifth of a franc, or 21
centimes.--At this rate, the workman who lives on his own labor, the
day-laborer, the journeyman who earns 1 franc 15 centimes per day and
who works 300 days of the year, ought to pay out of his 345 francs wages
69 francs to the public treasury. At this rate; the ordinary peasant
or cultivator of his own field, owner of a cottage and a small tract
of ground which he might rent at 100 francs a year, should pay into
the public treasury, out of his land income and from manual labor, 89
francs.[3227] The deduction, accordingly, on such small earnings would
be enormous; for this gain, earned from day to day, is just enough to
live on, and very poorly, for a man and his family: were it cut down
one-fifth he and his family would be obliged to fast; he would be
nothing but a serf or half-serf, exploited by the exchequer, his
seignior and his proprietor. Because the exchequer, as formerly the
proprietary seigniors, would appropriate to itself 60 days of labor out
of the 300. Such was the condition of many millions of men, the great
majority of Frenchmen, under the ancient Regime. Indeed, the five direct
taxes, the taille, its accessories, the road-tax, the capitatim and the
vingtiemes, were a tax on the taxpayer, not only according to the net
revenue of his property, if he had any, but again and especially "of his
faculties" and presumed resources whatever these might be, comprising
his manual earnings or daily wages.--Consequently, "a poor laborer
owning nothing,"[3228] who earned 19 sous a day, or 270 livres a
year,[3229] was taxed 18 or 20 livres. Out of 300 days' work
there were 20 or 22 which belonged beforehand to the public
treasury.--Three-fifths[3230] of the French people were in this
situation, and the inevitable consequences of such a fiscal system have
been seen--the excess of extortions and of suffering, the spoliation,
privations and deep-seated resentment of the humble and the poor. Every
government is bound to care for these, if not from c