ABSTRACT
When a tax is laid upon commodities, the necessary consequence may seem to be that the poor must retrench something from their way of living, or raise their wages, to make the burden of the tax fall upon the rich. The best taxes are such as are levied upon consumptions, especially those of luxury; because such taxes are least felt by the people. They seem, in some measure, voluntary; since a man may choose how far he will use the commodity which is taxed: They are paid gradually, and insensibly: They naturally produce sobriety and frugality, if judiciously imposed: And being confounded with the natural price of the commodity, they are scarcely perceived by the consumers. Their only disadvantage is that they are expensive in the levying. Taxes upon possessions are levied without expense; but have every other disadvantage. Most states, however, are obliged to have recourse to them, in order to supply the deficiencies of the other.
