PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 325 



IS 66, and her per capita consumption during the same period from 

 2.70 pounds to 3.42 pounds; and again, when the duty was further 

 reduced in 1865 from Is. to 6d. per pound, the annual importations 

 increased from 139,000,000 in 1866 to 209,000,000 in 1881, and the 

 per capita consumption from 3.42 pounds to 4.58. 



When by the act of October, 1890, the tax was removed from the 

 imports of crude sugars into the United States, the price of the same 

 went down almost immediately to an equal extent in all American 

 markets; while the consumption of sugar in the country increased from 

 an average of about fifty-four pounds per capita in 1890 to more than 

 sixty-seven pounds in 1892. A like result has attended a similar ex- 

 perience in respect to this in other countries, and especially in Great 

 Britain. Thus, the aggregate consumption of sugar by the British 

 people in 1844 was returned at 237,143 tons. A reduction of taxes 

 on its importation in 1864 increased its domestic use to 528,919 tons; 

 a reduction of fifty per cent on existing rates in 1870 made it 695,029 

 tons; another reduction of fifty per cent in 1873 carried up consump- 

 tion to 779,000 tons; and when, in 1874, all taxes on the imports of 

 sugar were abolished, the annual domestic consumption increased in 

 little more than a year's period to 930,000 tons. On the other hand, 

 when by the tariff act of 1890 an additional tax of half a cent per 

 pound was imposed on the import of tin plate into the United States, 

 tin plate went up to an equal extent in price all over the country; and 

 so also on pearl buttons, linen goods, and other articles of foreign pro- 

 duction on the importations of which the tariff taxes were largely 

 increased. By the tariff act of 1890, also, eggs, which could formerly 

 be imported into the United States free of duty, were made subject to 

 a tax of five cents per dozen. Since then the price of eggs imported 

 from Canada into districts of the United States within the same 

 sphere of territorial competition has been increased to the Ameri- 

 can consumers to almost exactly the extent of the import tax to 

 which they are subjected. Thus, when the price of eggs was ten 

 and a half cents per dozen in Toronto, they were sixteen cents in Buf- 

 falo and sixteen and a half to seventeen cents in New York. Such a 

 result would be unaccountable if the Canadian farmers paid the duty 

 on eggs sent by them to the United States. 



It is interesting to here ask attention to the opinions entertained 

 and expressed by those whose situation and experience have qualified 

 them to speak with authority: "The duty constitutes the price of 

 the whole mass of the article in the market. It is substantially paid 

 on the article of domestic manufacture, as well as that of foreign pro- 

 duction " (John Quincy Adams). " I said it, and I stand by it, that 

 as a general rule the duties paid on imports operate as a tax upon the 

 consumer " (John Sherman). Mr. Blaine, in his Twenty Years in 



