By taking the several great heads of revenue in order it is comparatively easy to understand the nature of the progress made in subsequent years. (1) The land tax, established on a definite basis in 1692, was the great 18th century form of direct taxation. Varying in rate from 1s. (as in 1731) to 4s. (as in most war years), it was converted by Pitt in 1798 into a redeemable charge on the lands of each parish, and by this process has sunk from the amount of £1,911,000 in 1798 to £730,000 in 1907-1908. The great increase in other heads had impaired the value of the land tax as a fiscal support. (2) Parallel with the movement of the land tax but showing much more rapid growth was the excise of the 18th century. Most of the articles of common consumption were permanently taxed. Soap, salt, candles and leather are described by Adam Smith as taxed, and that taxation is unreservedly condemned by him. In 1739 the excise duties brought in £3,000,000. By 1792 they had risen to £10,000,000. Their continued expansion was due both to the wider area covered and to the increased consuming power of the country. (3) The customs were equally serviceable, and in their case the increased duties were even more considerable. The general 10% of 1698 became 15% in 1704, a fourth 5% was imposed in 1748, and in 1759 the general duties were raised to 25%. Coincidently with this general extension of the customs duties special articles such as tea were subjected to increased duties. The American War of Independence brought about a further general increase of 10%, together with special extra duties on tobacco and sugar. In 1784 the customs revenue came to over £3,000,000. Two circumstances account for this slower growth. (1) The extreme rigour of the duties and prohibitions, aimed chiefly against French trade; and (2) the absence of care in estimating the point of maximum productiveness for each duty. Swift's famous saying that "in the arithmetic of the customs two and two sometimes, made only one" is well exemplified in England at this time. The smuggler did a great deal of the foreign trade of the country. Efforts at reform were not, however, altogether wanting. Walpole succeeded in carrying several useful adjustments. He abolished the general duties on exports and also several of those on imported raw materials such as silk, beaver, indigo and colonial timber. His most ambitious scheme--that for the warehousing of wine and tobacco in order to relieve exporters--failed, in consequence of the popular belief that it was the forerunner of a general excise. Walpole's treatment of the land tax, which he kept down to the lowest figure (1s.), and his earlier funding plan deserve notice. His determination to preserve peace assisted his fiscal reforms. Pitt's administration from 1783 to 1792 marks another great period of improvement. The consolidation of the customs laws (1787), the reduction of the tea duty to nearly one-tenth of its former amount, the conclusion of a liberal commercial treaty with France, and the attempted trade arrangement with Ireland, tend to show that "Pitt would have anticipated many of the free trade measures of later years if it had been his lot to enjoy ten more years of peaceful administration." One of the financial problems which excited the interest and even the alarm of the students of public affairs was the rapid increase of the public debt. Each war caused a great addition to the burden; the intervals of peace showed very little diminution in it. From sixteen millions in 1702, the debt rose to £53,000,000 at the treaty of Utrecht (1713). In 1748 it reached £78,000,000, at the close of the Seven Years' War it was £137,000,000, and when the American colonies had established their independence it exceeded £238,000,000. Apprehensions of national bankruptcy led to the adoption of the device of a sinking fund, and in this case Pitt's usual sagacity seems to have failed him. The influence of R. Price's theory induced the policy of assigning special sums for debt reduction, without regard to the fundamental condition of maintaining a real surplus.