The decline and fall of the British Empire - University of Oregon

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30 The Decline and Fall slumber, and while they slumbered the Nation died. VII. Excessive Taxation and Muni- cipal Extravagance, Not the least of those causes which resulted in the fall of the Roman Empire, was the existence at Rome of an elaborate Civil Service which crushed private enter- prise.* The disorganization of this Civil Service during a period of storm and stress resulted in the most hopeless confusion. As we know, it was precisely the same in the case of England. Her citizens came to look to the State for every- thing. It educated, fed, whipped, and in some cases even clothed their children. It lit their houses and * In addition to Gibbon, see Bury's History of the Later Roman Empire ^ vol. i, chap, iii ; also ^ Roman Society in the last Cefitury of the Roman Empire^ by Samuel Dill, Book iii, chap. i.
of the British Empire 31 lent them light literature| ; it carried them to and fro on tramcars ; it gave them cheap lodgings, and con- ducted scores of similar costly under- takings on principles which will be recognized by the smallest office-boy in Tokio as ignoring the mere elements of political economy. For as early as the year 1900 we find the State entrusting local bodies with the right of spending more than a hundred million pounds a year upon municipal objects. Of this vast sum a large portion was spent in municipal trading, and as the century advanced the money thus employed increased enormously. Of the enterprises which were thus undertaken many were avowedly run at a loss. Of the remainder a few were sound business concerns, but t Large sums were spent by the State on Public Libraries, but the investment in serious books was a financial loss as they were inadequately used.
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