ABSTRACT
… Tho’ you must be tired too of my Letter, I am tempted to say a Word to the political Question, which has been often agitated between us, viz the Method of laying on Taxes, Whether it is better to impose them on landed Possessions or on Consumptions. You will own, that, as the public Revenue is employ’d for the Defence of the whole Community, it is more equitable to levy it from the whole; but you say, that this is impracticable: It will fall on the Land at last; and it is better to lay it on there directly. You suppose then that the Labourers always raise the Price of their Labour in proportion to the Taxes. But this is contrary to Experience. Labour is dearer in Neuf-chatel and other parts of Swisserland, where there are no Taxes, than in the neighbouring Provinces of France, where there are a great many. There are almost no Taxes on the English Colonies; yet Labour is three times dearer there than in any Country of Europe. There are great Taxes on Consumptions in Holland, but the Republic possesses no Land, on which they can fall. The Price of Labour will always depend on the Quantity of Labour and the Quantity of Demand; not on the Taxes. 2 The Tradesmen who work in Cloath, that is exported, cannot raise the Price of their Labour; because in that Case the Price of the Cloath wou’d become too dear to be sold in foreign Markets: Neither can the Tradesmen who work in Cloath for home Consumption raise their Prices; since there cannot be two Prices for the same Species of Labour. This extends to 209all Commodities of which there is any part exported, that is, to almost every Commodity. Even were there some Commodities of which no part is exported, the Price of Labour employ’d in them, cou’d not rise; for this high Price wou’d tempt so many hands to go into that Species of Industry as must immediatly [sic] bring down the Prices. It appears to me that where a Tax is laid on Consumption, the immediate Consequence is that either the Tradesmen consume less or work more. No Man is so industrious but he may add some Hours more in the Week to his Labour: And scarce any one is so poor but he can retrench something of his Expence. What happens when the Corn rises in its Prices? Do not the poor both live worse and labour more? A Tax has the same effect. I beg you also to consider, that, besides the Proprietors of Land and the labouring Poor, there is in every civilised Community a very large and a very opulent Body who employ their Stocks in Commerce and who enjoy a great Revenue from their giving Labour to the poorer sort. I am perswaded that in France and England the Revenue of this kind is much greater than that which arises from Land: For besides Merchants, properly speaking, I comprehend in this Class all Shop-Keepers and Master- Tradesmen of every Species. Now it is very just, that these shoud pay for the Support of the Community, which can only be where Taxes are lay’d on Consumptions. There seems to me no Pretence for saying that this order of Men are necessitated to throw their Taxes on the Proprietors of Land, since their Profits and Income can surely bear Retrenchment….
