_On the Object of all Ministers of Finance in laying Taxes._
In this indulgent age, wherein nothing more is required on any one
subject, than a little decency, it would be a ridiculous and fruitless
hypocrisy to propose a tax, as the means of encouraging virtue, or of
discountenancing vice; it is not, at least in a country where a man
convicted of smuggling wool, is by law sentenced to have his hand cut
off, nor in another where a smuggler of salt is condemned for years to
serve on board the gallies, that one should preach up the heart-felt
concern he must experience at framing a law which would make it felony to
drink spirituous liquors if he had really a mind to prevent intoxication;
it is hoped on the contrary, nay, firmly believed, that the sweetness of
the poison will make palatable the very bitterness of the tax, and its
absurd disproportion to the real value of the taxed article: besides, it
is too evident, that it is not the difference of a few pence _more_ that
will prevent a man from drinking to excess when he is so inclined, nor a
few pence _less_ that will occasion another to inebriate himself, when
his only motive for drinking is a moderate pleasure, or the necessity of
allaying his thirst. The object of every Minister, in laying a tax, is
always to procure the sum at which he has rated its produce; if the tax
should answer any other purpose, this additional one is considered merely
with regard to the prospect it affords of making good another tax less
productive than was at first expected. In fact, a minister of finance is
not a _præfectus morum_—a moral censor: the State is in want of a certain
sum; _that’s enough, it must be found_.—Let us then examine, what kind of
taxation will be the least burdensome in its operation, give its first
shock with the least violence, and be attended with inconveniences of the
shortest duration.
_Effects of a general Poll-Tax._
_Eleventh Hypothesis._
In the year 1779, the taxes in _England_ amounted, I shall say, to 10
millions; I shall suppose too, that this was the tenth part of the
general produce of the land and industry: therefore the 10th part of
the nominal value of that _general produce_ belonged to the tax, or was
_necessitated by the tax_; the 40 shillings, which, to facilitate my
operations, I shall also suppose to be the average price of the quarter
of wheat, must then have been considered as the _necessary_ price, or
the price _necessitated_ by the tax, and 36_s._ as the _natural_ price,
or the price _acquired_ by the sole, _natural_ increase of the national
wealth. But in order that those 36_s._ might be called the _natural_
price, the taxes should have been divided in such a manner as to load
each particular article with a 9th part of its value; that is to say,
that each individual, possessed of a property denominated 9, should
see it charged only with one ninth more, in consequence of a general
poll-tax, which we shall suppose to have been assessed _with the utmost
impartiality_. In effect, it appears, that in this case the proprietor
of a quarter of wheat, who, in consequence of the tax, would have raised
the wheat from 36 to 40_s._ could not be said to have injured the hatter,
who would sell him for 40 guineas the 40 hats which, previously to the
poll-tax, he used to let him have for 36 guineas. It also appears, that
the hatter could not be injured by giving 10 to the workman, instead of
the 9 which he had hitherto paid; and that, in fine, _if 27 millions had
proved sufficient for circulation formerly, three millions more, once
found, were fully adequate to the annual and perpetual payment of those
10 millions of taxes_, without any one being a sufferer, but at the
instant of the first payment. This system is deficient only in point
of practicability; it is not established in _England_: 36 shillings
therefore are not the _natural_ price of wheat; the wheat certainly owes
above 4 shillings to the taxes, if its current price amounts to 40_s._
Let it be observed, nevertheless, that if the system of a poll-tax could
be reduced to practice, if it were not of all systems the most absurd,
though the easiest for government, if it were not of all systems that
in which it is most evidently impossible to avoid thousands of injuries
to the subject, one might establish now in _England_ a new tax of 10
millions annually, and pay it for ever, without altering in the least the
condition of anybody, _provided one could find previously, and once for
all, 2,600,000l. and that wheat should advance in price from 40s. to 43s.
4d. AND EVERY THING ELSE IN PROPORTION_. This appears to me so glaringly
evident, that it extorts from me the affirmative tone. Now as soon as
this should be effected, THE BURDEN OF THE TAX WOULD CLEARLY BE NULL.
But, it will be objected, the price of wheat is not thus arbitrarily
advanced:—certainly not; for were this to be the case, it might also
be lowered at pleasure, and would _every other day_, alternately rise
from 1 to 80_s._ and fall from 80 to 1, since for this operation (become
indispensable) it would suffice that there should be in all the provinces
of _England_ as many bodies-corporate (_corporations_) in _agriculture_,
as there are in _industry_. I am even inclined to think, that it would
then be minutely examined, _Whether it be in fact advantageous to
agriculture, that the merchants export more goods than they import?_ (a
due attention being paid to the five articles so often mentioned, which
render necessary the importation of bullion); a question of the utmost
importance, to which I do not see that any body has hitherto attended,
and which might be so easily determined, if my principles are just.
_Effects of a Land-Tax._
_All taxes, it is said, fall on the land at last. Land is the true, the
only spring of wealth; wealth should be taxed at its very source._
It is certain, that merely by knowing how the matter stands, we know how
to proceed accordingly; and that, in the long-run, every thing arranges
itself in the least exceptionable manner that the system of taxation will
permit. The following is probably the course which things would take, in
the system of a land-tax, if it were necessary now to lay on the land a
new tax of 10 millions annually, supposing always the landed revenue at
60 millions, and the quarter of wheat at 40 shillings.
_Twelfth Hypothesis._
_(I must premise, that in all I have now to say, not only on the present
hypothesis, but on all those that follow, I build on this principle;
~that, from the moment every individual pays the tax~, nobody pays it;
~that nevertheless its produce reverts to the creditors of the State, and
that therefore every body is interested in carrying matters to that issue
as soon as possible~.—If there never existed in the average of prices any
revolution so sudden, so great, and constant in its effect, as the one
which I am about to suppose; it is because it never was necessary to lay
all at once 10 millions of taxes. The effect produced by one million on
a revenue like that which ~England~ enjoys, is so trifling, so gradual,
that it never can be felt.—But to my hypothesis)._
The march of industry is always firm; she can never be bewildered by
her guide. A tax of 2 shillings upon a hat will soon occasion either an
alteration in the quality, or a proportionate increase in its price[7].
_Nothing more just._ But agriculture has only one resource; she cannot
alter the quality of her productions, and she is always timid when she
wants to increase their prices. Let it be granted, however, that the
first attempt of the cultivator will be to enhance boldly the price of
his goods, in a proportion which may return him the amount of the tax
supposed to be of 10 millions: his wheat, of course, will rise from 40 to
46_s._ 8_d._ and so with regard to other productions; then his revenue,
instead of 60, will be 70 millions; but, being obliged to lay down 10 for
the tax, he will have only 60 millions left.
Let us now observe, that when the operations of agriculture are talked
of in consequence of taxes, the land proprietor is alluded to; and from
him they suppose that the ten millions are taken, just as the fleece is
shorn from the sheep; but, on the other hand, that proprietor, though not
very clear in his idea of what is best for him to do, feels mechanically
that he has a right to defend his fleece, that is, to increase the
price of the productions of his land, because without them, neither the
manufacturer nor the Minister of Finance can subsist, and to raise that
price to such a level as will subject him to pay only just as much as the
minister and the manufacturer: and _this again appears to me extremely
just_.
Now this very proprietor receives of his 60 millions revenue, or rather
of the revenue of his land, no more than about 20 millions; (this is
nearly the result of Mr. _Young_’s statement: it will be seen, in
the sequel, that more or less would only alter the proportion of the
shares, without having the least influence either on the application
of the principle, or on its consequences): the 40 millions overplus is
swallowed up, _viz._ for the daily pay of the labourer, 20 millions, and
20 millions for the other charges with which the estates are encumbered,
tythes, profits of farmers, &c. &c. It follows, of course,
_Either_
That the proprietor’s share must be advanced to 30 millions, if he alone
be taxed; and this will leave each of the other parts interested in the
landed revenue, in possession of its 20 millions, as well after as before
the tax;
_Or_,
That each of the three parts taxed singly, at 3,333,333_l._ 6_s._ 8_d._
and enabled to pay the impost by an advance of price, both in the
productions and in the wages of labour, be reduced to its primitive 20
millions, after the payment of the tax.
One is evidently equal to the other; but what is not so, is, that
_industry_, who paid her workmen with 20 millions when the quarter of
wheat was at 40_s._ cannot pay them since the wheat is increased to
46_s._ 8_d._ but by adding to the former wages, 3,333,333_l._ 6_s._ 8_d._
an advance which, when divided on the total of her products, heretofore
rated at 60 millions, raises each third part of 20 to 21,111,111, and
some trifling fractions.—Now, there remains in the hands of each of the
parties concerned in agriculture, only 20 millions over and above the
payment of the tax.—Those who are in the persuasion that the discharge
of the import must lessen, by its whole amount at least, the revenue of
those who pay it, think, no doubt, that agriculture is very well off, to
have, by raising the price of its commodities two thirds, lightened the
weight of so terrible a burden; yet if it were possible by a vigorous
exertion, by an additional increase in the price of provisions, to make
it null to every body, I do not see that it would be reasonable to oppose
such exertion; for, after all,
_Either_
The first increase, brought on by _agriculture_, was unjust; the
proprietor was doomed to sustain alone the whole weight of the tax, if
we allow _the taxator_, the man who laid the tax, to have had a single
thought on the subject:
_Or_,
The further advance in the prices of agriculture is of the most
indispensable necessity, if the _taxator_ has only thought of getting the
amount of the tax with the least trouble to himself, leaving to Nature
the care of distributing _to every one_ complete justice,—to Nature, who
never fails to do it, and who, in so complicated an operation, employs
only the simple spring of that private cupidity, with which she has armed
and shielded every individual; just as, in order to settle the most exact
symmetry in that admirable edifice commonly called a hive, she employs
no other agent than the reciprocal _pressure_ of that multitude of
architects who work at it, each of whom thinks of nothing but to secure a
little cell for himself.
_Thirteenth Hypothesis._
Let us then suppose that agriculture, judiciously determined by wisdom
not to suffer the least encroachments on any part of her _cell_, or
mechanically led by cupidity to justice, boldly raises the price of her
wheat from 40 to 50_s._ and the rest of her products in a due proportion;
her general revenues will then be increased from 60 to 75 millions;
each of the three parts interested therein will therefore stand at 25
millions, but will be reduced to 21,666,666_l._ 13_s._ 4_d._ when the tax
is paid off;—
Industry, compelled also by the advanced prices of the productions
of the earth, to pay her workmen 25 instead of the 20 millions which
they required in the first instance, will divide the additional 5
millions amongst the 60 millions of her former returns; each third share
therefore, rated hitherto at 20 millions, will, by means of the addition,
rise to 21,666,666_l._ 13_s._ 4_d._—_which is the exact balance of the
like sum left in the hands of each of the three branches of agriculture,
after having discharged the tax_.
In a system of taxation which should be imposed only on the land, an
impost of 10 millions annually, on a revenue of 60 millions, whether
it fall on the proprietor, or be divided between him, the farmer, the
cultivator, and other parties concerned, requires of course an addition
of 25 _per cent._ to the price of the productions of the earth, that
agriculture may not be sacrificed to industry; but it must be observed,
that immediately after the reaction of the one upon the other shall be
completed, the burden of the tax will evidently be _null_, since _the
price of labour will have increased equally in both, in proportion to
that of their respective products_.
_Reflexions on the foregoing System._
This system was devised to countenance and encourage agriculture; it
is in her hands, they say, it is at that fountain-head of riches, that
riches must be sought for; it is the land that finally pays for all; the
impost then must be laid on the net produce of the land.—I shall venture
some reflexions on a subject which appears to me the more important, as
one of the wisest, and the most profound speeches ever delivered in the
House of Lords, seems to hint at the expediency of an aggravation of the
burden already laid on agriculture.
Agriculture is the spring of life; it is not the spring of those riches
which we call money: money must be had for taxes; money flows from the
hands of industry alone: it is then from this spring that money must be
drawn.
Besides, how is it known that the money, wrested from agriculture, is
not necessary to her support? Or how does it escape observation, that
all the money which is not laid out by the cultivator upon agriculture,
will necessarily revert to industry, either by the immediate consumption
of the cultivator, or by that which he shall have occasioned on the part
of the person to whom he shall have lent the value of what he has not
consumed himself?
How comes it to be known, that the proprietor of a landed estate that
yields him, we shall suppose, 800_l._ _per annum_, and who is charged
200_l._ for taxes, is not indebted in 300_l._ out of the remaining
600_l._? Now, it is true that 300_l._ are sufficient for his support; but
were those 200_l._ which are forced from him, laid out annually on his
land, they would certainly in very few years raise its produce from 800
to 1000_l._—What is that but to assess unjustly a man who enjoys only
500_l._ as high as another whose income amounts to 800_l._—to tie down
agriculture to 800 when it might rise to 1000; to deprive industry of the
re-action produced by that benefit; to crush population in the very bud,
and consequently to prevent a more considerable consumption; in fine, to
deprive government beforehand of the amount of those taxes which that
increase of population and consumption would have secured to the State?
It may be said in _France_, it is true, that by a tax laid on private
loan-covenants, those inconveniences are partly removed; but this very
removal is only an additional obstacle, thrown in the way of agriculture,
to impede its progress;—the man who could lend to the cultivator, besides
the fear of not receiving back his money when wanted, has before his
eyes the certainty of being charged with the twentieth penny laid on
the interest of the money thus advanced, and consequently, as often as
he conveniently can, lends that money to a merchant, who besides his
punctuality in paying at the fixed time, never hesitates to allow the
usual interest without any deduction whatever.
It may be said also in _England_, that all over _Great Britain_, the
land-tax, (which, like some others, is perhaps no more than a real
poll-tax under a name less grating to a _British_ ear) does not exceed
the sum of about 2 millions out of 14 or 15, the whole amount of her
taxes; but nothing can be deduced therefrom, but that it is subject
only to a proportionable share of the inconveniences above stated;
inconveniences which are inseparable from it: we may add, that it
is indeed free from some further grievances which fall heavy on the
_French_ cultivator:—but can the _English_ boast of their tax being
founded on an invariable principle, when this very principle is unjust
in its consequences, and, as often as necessity requires the tax to
be advanced, multiplies the injustice which follows it?—Yet they hint
at the expediency of increasing that very tax, in order to alleviate
the imaginary burden that weighs down industry!—Some pretend that the
land-tax is become a _public property_; they suppose that all such sales
and purchases of land as have taken place since the year 1740, have
been effected on that principle of renunciation of the capital, the
interest of which is paid by that land-tax:—they infer, no doubt, that
the intention of those who did not sell, was implicitly included in that
of those who have actually sold; for they propose that all the present
proprietors shall redeem the tax, in order to refund part of the national
debt; as if, on the very next day after the redemption, Government had
not a right to renew it, if some fresh exigency should start, which
could not be answered by any other means.
In the critical moment of a discredit, which will always be imputable
to the Minister, when the King and the People are fully acquainted with
their real interest, if administration, not knowing what to do, does not
hesitate to apply to the land proprietor, whose ways and means are always
visible, and whose purse lies, as it were, ever open against his own
inclination, the Minister, no doubt, finds his excuse in the necessity;
but after the crisis is over, why should the proprietor be further
aggrieved?
But, say they, the amount of the tax cannot be dispensed with;—no
objection can be urged against necessity; _all that is wanted, is the
least that can possibly be given; just as all that is wanted, is the
most that it can be advantageous to take_: but the whole should be paid
by each individual, only in proportion to his faculties:—Now the fact
is, that the faculties of the land proprietors are not better known
than those of the merchants;—_the latter have found means to prove, to
persuade, that they ought not to be taxed, but in proportion to their
consumption, the only criterion of their riches_, or at least that part
of their riches which they do not lay out in increasing commercial
wealth.—IS THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE TERRITORIAL WEALTH LESS ESSENTIAL, OR
LESS VALUABLE TO THE STATE?
Let us examine, however, in what degree the taxes laid on the different
articles of consumption, must enhance the price of goods, in order that
agriculture may not suffer more than industry. If it should result from
this research, that many previous false steps have raised the greatest
obstacles against the execution of those measures which would prove
the most equitable, without being more disadvantageous in any point of
view; the inconvenience of such obstacles might be deemed trifling, when
_compared with the burden supposed to be transmitted to posterity_. And
it is not in _England_ that an important truth, generally acknowledged,
will long remain without effect; it is not in _England_ that an important
truth will long remain without being generally acknowledged.
_Effects of an Impost exclusively laid on the Articles of Consumption
peculiar to the rich, or in other words, ~on Luxury~._
The immediate effect of a tax, is to raise the price of the object on
which it is laid, by at least the whole amount of the tax: _nothing can
be more just_; but it is at the same time a consideration which ought
to keep pace with the one I have already offered, on the very positive
_object_ of all kinds of taxation, namely, _to secure the sum at which
the product of the impost is valued, whatever that sum may be_.
Now, in order to estimate justly the system of taxation we are
considering, it must be presented in all its glory, that is, such as
all Ministers of finance in _Europe_ seem to wish it; such as all the
_English_ news-papers recommend it, rather roughly, each of them at least
once a week; such as all Oppositions, past, present, and future, have
pretended, do pretend, and ever will pretend it to be, so easy and so
equitable; such as all preachers of the _Roman_, _English_, _Jansenist_
and _Presbyterian_ persuasion, are wont to deliver it every day among
the private societies whom they are pleased to honour with their partly
christian, partly political reflexions, and would speak it out from the
pulpit, if Ministers of finance had any leisure to hear their sermons,
&c. I shall therefore suppose that the tax of 10 millions, mentioned
in the three foregoing articles, should be assessed in so able, so
_charitable_ a manner, that 5 millions should fall on the landlord, and
the other 5 on the richest proprietor of money. I shall begin with the
most essential, for the State is certainly founded on the landed property.
What is the revenue of the land-proprietor?⸺Nothing more, all expences
defrayed, than the third part of the real produce of his lands; and this
third is, in the _hypothesis_, estimated at 20 millions only.—These 20
millions finding in the hands of industry, that portion which usually
gave the balance of those 20 millions, raised to 25 millions by means of
the tax, it clearly appears that the proprietor alluded to is short by 25
_per cent._ of the sum required to pay that portion.—In this case what is
he to do?
Shall he leave industry in possession of one fifth of his former
comforts?—Then industry would be debarred from the sale of that fifth
part; one fifth of its artificers would be left without any other
resource than that which the highway might afford, _and the main object
of the taxation would be defeated in the following year_, unless
exportation should make up to industry for the want of home-consumption,
(_the only one by which a State can prosper_,) and the _deficit_ of the
tax laid on the home-consumption, should be compensated by another tax
on foreign consumption, that is _on the exports_.
We shall suppose this to be the case, and that industry actually exports
that fifth part of the national commodities which the land proprietor
is not able any longer to consume, and which, nevertheless, industry is
compelled to sell, in order to be reimbursed the tax she has advanced,
and be prepared to answer the fresh demand which next year government
will have occasion to make.—But if it were to such means that _England_
should stand indebted for part of the increase in her exports, her
industry, methinks, would have derived less advantage therefrom, than a
home-sale might have procured, even supposing the inconvenience of which
I shall speak presently: it appears to me also, that the land proprietors
would, in that case, have some reason to complain, and that the rest
of the nation would have no cause to boast of the immensity of her
exportation.—The draw-backs granted on the very exportation of the taxed
commodities, prove that such an expedient never was adopted in _England_.
Will the land proprietor come to a resolution to fly from his native
country, in search of another, where good men content themselves with
declaiming against luxury, without making any attempt to destroy it? No,
he never did, nor ever will take that resolution; he is fast bound to his
land by the roots of every plant he has laid on it.—What then is he to
do? It behoves the Minister of finance to give him some wholesome advice.
If the Minister be silent, or if he shuffle, because he is closely
watched by Opposition, he must equally lose his popularity; for the
land proprietor, left to shift for himself, will raise the price of the
productions of his land, in proportion as the tax has increased that part
of the products of industry that concerns him.—
But his 20 millions revenue, have, as I have said, the same component
parts as the 40 millions which he is obliged to give up for the expences
of cultivation, and other incumbrances attending property:—he cannot
therefore increase them to 25 millions, without raising by one twelfth
the total amount of the 60 millions of landed revenue; this will at
once carry up the quarter of wheat from 40_s._ to 43_s._ 4_d._: this is
therefore an advance of 8⅓ _per cent._ on his commodities:—upon which
we must observe, that no increase will take place in the wages of the
mechanic, or of the husbandman; for the objects of luxury are the only
ones which we suppose to have been taxed: such is the _infernal_ side of
this _heavenly_ system.—Yet this is not all.
What is the money-proprietor to do, not having it in his power to
raise the price of his money as the landed proprietor can do that of
his wheat, but who, on the contrary, is invariably limited to the same
nominal revenue, whilst the tax of the other 5 millions, which the
_humanity_ of the _taxator_ had levelled at him, has occasioned a rise
of 25 _per cent._ in the nominal value of those articles of luxury in
which he indulged himself?—He will, he must leave them in the hands of
industry, and confine himself to such objects as are not taxed; it is a
resource, as it is at the same time a compulsive measure.—_The produce
of the tax will then be inadequate to the want_: a second impost must
then be thought on, to supply the _deficit_ of the first.—_Fall again
upon luxury_, cry the enthusiasts; _this is more necessary than ever,
for bread is already 8⅓ per cent. dearer than it was, and the land
proprietors have abated nothing of their luxury; they ride still in their
chariots, whilst the poor loaded porter constantly trudges on foot_.
Enthusiasts will never see further, and those who are not enthusiasts
do not yet see far enough; for they only say _that it is expedient for
government, that the prices of commodities be kept up, in order to
facilitate the payment of the impost_.—Yet, _if it is expedient_ for
government, that the prices be _kept up_ to _facilitate_ the payment of
the impost, I conclude that it is an _absolute necessity_ for government,
that the prices do increase, when there is no other visible means to
establish _the possibility_ of paying taxes. I therefore have to answer
only to the enthusiasts, and let it be as the enthusiasts will have it:⸺
But the first 5 millions of the _charitable_ tax could not be paid,
without an advanced price of 8⅓ _per cent._ on all the productions of
the earth, without raising the wheat from 40_s._ to 43_s._ 4_d._—it will
then be necessary to increase its price by as much again; it must advance
from 43_s._ 4_d._ to 46_s._ 8_d._ in order that the tax be paid _without
foreign assistance_. Then all will be settled, regulated, balanced, and
paid between the _capitalists_ of land and those of industry; _but as no
objects will have been taxed but those of luxury_, how long will it be
before the people, the labouring man can see justice done to him?—Ten
popular insurrections perhaps will be required to extort it. Yet let us
suppose that the very first proves sufficient to procure it complete,
that is, that their wages be raised 16⅔ _per cent._ as the tax after
all the necessary re-actions has increased the price of the produce of
their labour:—in this case, instead of the 20 millions allowed before to
each of the two classes of working men, cultivators and mechanics, they
will then receive 23,333,333_l._ 13_s._ 4_d._—But how will you wrest
from the hands of the land proprietor 3,333,333_l._ 13_s._ 4_d._ out
of the portion which he was obliged to lay by, _that the tax might be
paid by his consumption_, without his advancing again the price of his
commodities in such a proportion as will return him the new sum which
he is forced to pay?—And were he not to augment again the price of his
commodities, would not then a new tax become necessary to supply the
_deficit_ which the rise of wages of the labouring men must occasion in
the consumption of their employers?—The land proprietor will then add
still to the price of his goods;—but will not this addition, _equally
necessary as the two first_, be productive of a further necessity of
raising in proportion the price of labour, the wages of the labouring
man?—No doubt; and another insurrection would procure justice, if the
thought did not occur at last of observing, that _the class of labouring
men being, before the tax, in possession of one third of the general
revenue, forms, in this respect, a third interest equal to one half of
the two other_. Now, the tax having enforced an advance in prices of 16⅔,
to shelter the two former from its effect, there must also be, in favour
of the third interest, a third increase of 8⅓, which rising at last to
25 _per cent._ more, the price of labour, as that of its produce, both
in regard to land and industry, will exactly leave to each of the three
interests, under the denomination of _twenty-five_, the same comforts as
each of them enjoyed under that of _twenty_ before the tax was laid.
In regard therefore to the effects of the tax on the prices of
provisions, there is not the least difference between the system of
taxing luxury, and that of a land-tax; 50_s._ in the supposition of an
impost of ten millions, would prove in either system the _necessary_
price of wheat; for if ever a price can be termed _necessary_, it is when
it cannot be lower without effecting the ruin of the land proprietor, and
even _without missing the sole and indispensable end of taxation_, unless
recourse be had to one of the following resources:
_Either_
To export such commodities, which, as it might be absurdly supposed, the
nation is no longer able to consume,
_Or_,
To steal from the people the proportionable increase _due to them_ in the
price of their labour, if they should prove so complaisant as tamely to
submit, out of gratitude, for _the tax being laid only upon luxury_.
I shall conclude this article with a reflexion which may give birth to
many others.
The impost on _luxury_, which, after a very little time, as we have seen,
proves no ways injurious to those who were able to pay for the objects
upon which the tax was laid, is besides, under another point of view,
really advantageous to those very men who seem the only contributors to
it; _because_ it sets entirely above the reach of the people, a number of
articles in which they would indulge themselves, _to the great benefit of
the tax_, and which, though perhaps intended _by the general provider_,
as well for the poor as for the rich, are nevertheless, by the _merciful_
system of taxation, exclusively reserved to the rich.—Is this the
intention of the _merciful taxator_?—in my opinion it ought not to be
that of an _intelligent one_.
_Effects of a merciless Tax upon all the Articles of the most general
Consumption._
Instead of laying a tax _on men_, from whom, without rushing with open
eyes into the perpetration of a thousand injuries, it is impossible to
require any thing more than a _personal service_, when it is necessary
and _possible_ withal; instead of taxing _the land_, from which nothing
can be expected but food, and the rough materials to which industry
can give from one to many hundred degrees of value; instead of taxing
that imaginary monster called _luxury_, which procures so substantial
a support to some, and such pleasing comforts to others, lay your tax
solely, and without predilection, on _all those products of national and
foreign industry which are more generally consumed_; then, in my opinion,
you will have reason to flatter yourself that riches are taxed to their
very source, and without inconvenience to any one, since you tax it in
the hands of those who are, _by the strictest justice_, authorised to a
benefit for all the advances made by them to the consumer.
So then, though the tax of 10 millions be fixed on certain parts of
industry, nothing will prevent the whole from rising proportionably; and
for this, _God alone be thanked_. The whole will be then 70 millions
instead of 60;—upon which the least reflexion is sufficient to make us
feel the necessity of the re-actions mentioned in the foregoing system,
_but with this difference_, that the general consumption having been
taxed, the two _capitalists_ cannot, even on the very day when the impost
takes place, shut their eyes against the justice of increasing the
salary of the labouring man in a due proportion.—Now, _the interest_ of
the two capitalists could not, as in the preceding system, be preserved
undiminished, but by an increase from 60 to 70 millions, that is to
say, 16⅔ _per cent._—Now, _the interest_ of the labouring man is, as
has been observed before, equal to one half of the other two classes
in the general revenue, or, in other words, equal to either;—it will
therefore become necessary, in order to restore the former equilibrium,
to introduce a fresh increase of 8⅓ _per cent._ upon every thing;—in
consequence of which the price of labour, being raised 25 _per cent._
just as its products, both in cultivation and industry, will leave also
the two classes of labourers in the same situation they were in previous
to the tax; each of them was then in possession of 20 millions out of
60, each will now get 25 out of 75.
I think also that _then_, a Minister of finance, ever so anxious about
his operations, ever so zealous for the establishment of none but
_productive_ taxes, could not conceive a single article of consumption
that might suffer by this arrangement; it would appear too evidently
that every one would _then_ have the very same faculty of consuming,
manufacturing, or saving, under the denomination of 25, all that he had
before consumed, manufactured, or saved under the denomination of 20.
It would also be seen _then_, that the success of those taxes termed
_productive_, is not to be ascribed to the abilities of the _taxator_,
but to the abilities of the persons _taxed_, who have taken care to right
themselves by so much as the _taxator_ ought to have been afraid of being
unjust.
_Then_ also would every one be sensible, that the advance in all the
prices could not be only of a 12th part, or 8⅓ _per cent._ as in the
_glorious_ system of a poll-tax _established by Divine Justice_, but
of 25 _per cent._ neither _more nor less_ than in the system of the
_land-tax_, neither _more nor less_ than in the system of an exclusive
tax _upon luxury_; that consequently _wheat_, as well as produce of
any other sort, as well as _labour_ which gives the whole, _would be
indebted to the tax for a fifth part of its new nominal value_, and that
50_s._ would be the _medium_ price of wheat;—its _necessary_ price,
but not more _necessary_ in that _merciless_ taxation, than in the
_merciful_ one laid on the exclusive consumption of the rich:—and this
calls for the attention of every individual; nor can it be too often
repeated, because _then_ neither hypocrites, nor enthusiasts, nor good
men, nor manufacturers, nor farmers, nor proprietors, could any longer
deceive themselves or others, on the price of labour; it would be too
self-evident that the said price ought to increase with the taxes, and
that no one would be injured by that increase.
Then it would also appear, that some people had very good reason to say,
that the burden of all taxes, falls one time or another, on the landed
property; but who could refuse to admit besides, that I am tolerably
founded in insisting, that when taxes have in fine reached every part of
the whole, no one part can feel the weight?
_The money proprietor_, it will be said, the _lender alone_ will be
aggrieved; he must lose the fifth part of his usual comforts, he must pay
15 for those articles which he could procure formerly for 12.