147 



Commenting on this ezhibt of the taxes paid by manufactures and produc- 

 tions, the Economist remarks : 



'* The $104,000,000 of taxes collected upon manufactures and products is drawn 

 from about $1,700,000,000 of goods. Upon goods thus taxed not only has 

 the duty to be added, hut also the dealer^ s profit upon the duty, through at least 

 four successive hands, before the products reach the consumer; so that the con- 

 sumer has, on the average, to pay 10 to 12 per cent, more for the goods than if 

 they vpere free from taxation. This $104,000,000 of taxes upon products, 

 therefore really represents about $200,000,000 of extra price which consumers 

 have to pay upon the goods taxed. ' his serious addition to the cost of pro- 

 ducts cannot fail to have the effect of limiting the consumption of commodities 

 very largely." 



The Economist is a very able paper, devoted to the commercial interests, but 

 very fair in its general views of the manufacturing and agricultural interests. 

 Here is an admission that whilst the manufacturer advances the tax laid upon his 

 products, the consumer repays him not only the amount advanced, but ten to 

 twelve per cent, as a profit on such advancement. If this.be true — and it may 

 be set down as generally so — then, most assuredly, the manufacturer has no cause 

 of complaint. He is repaid the taxes advanced by him, with ten per cent, 

 interest. But the consumer has cause of complaint, that he should be subjected 

 to this per cent.; and to lessen it, we have heretofore advocated that the tax 

 should be laid as near the consumer as possible. 



But it is said that these taxes and per cent, upon their advance cannot fail to 

 limit the consumption of commodities very largely. 



Will the Economist allow the imports to answer this allegation ? 



Here they are as given by the Journal of Commerce, N. Y., 



Import of foreign dry goods at Netv York for two months, from January 1. 



ENTERED FOR CONSUMPTION. 



Here we see an import about 4 J times greater in January and February, 1866, 

 than during the same months in 1865. Even the Journal of Commerce, de- 

 voted as it is to free trade, designates these imports as "extraordinary receipts," 

 and an "enormous increase." 



