<petition><petition_analysis_number>11484905</petition_analysis_number><petition_url>https://dlas.uncg.edu/petitions/petition/11484905</petition_url><state>Tennessee</state><county>Maury</county><location_type>County</location_type><file_day>14</file_day><file_month>11</file_month><file_year>1849</file_year><filing_court>Legislative</filing_court><result>referred to committee</result><enslaved_count>0</enslaved_count><fpoc_count>0</fpoc_count><total_people_count>10</total_people_count><repository>Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, Tennessee</repository><abstract>Ninety-three “Merchants and others” complain about excessive taxation.  On sales of $200,000 worth of merchandise, they point out that wholesalers pay the enormous sum of $2,000, not including corporation or city taxes. The petitioners decry that "if this tax is persisted in, it will destroy the Wholesale business, which it has already seriously crippled"; in addition, another $2,000 in taxes is imposed at the retail level.  Complaining that land owners and slave owners pay only one-tenth this amount, the petitioners “humbly pray that the equitable principle of the Constitution, that ‘no species of property, from which a tax may be collected, shall be taxed higher than any other species of property of equal value’ shall be extended to Merchandise as well as to other kinds of property.”</abstract><subjects><subject>Taxation (enslaved)</subject></subjects></petition>