Statics of Stat?-Quo Permanency; Or, the Maximum of Taxability Made a Measure of the Durability of Any Present Order of Things

Statics Of Statû-Quo Permanency; Or, The Maximum Of Taxability Made A Measure Of The Durability Of Any Present Order Of Things by John Bellenden Ker. The treatise offers a bold, deductive critique of how communities sustain themselves under taxation and property, arguing that the durability of any social order rests on a fisco-political foundation in which wealth, labour, and vested rights must be aligned. Ker divides society into two great classes—the possidentes (owners of productive property) and the non (toilers)—and constructs a theory of remuneration based on 'ownerage' and 'toilerage,' complemented by the notion of 'labour-in-store' and 'labour-in-coin.' He introduces the principle of vested rights and the compact that binds owners to provide employment or surface for the non, showing how departures from this compact destabilize state order. The work traces four stages of social complication—population growth, protectionism, emigration, and debt—and critiques poor-laws, machinery, and free trade as threats to the 'statu-quo.' It also surveys the perils of public debt, inflation, and paper money, urging structural reforms to preserve wealth, power, and political stability through prudent fiscal policy.