406 PAPER MONEY AND A PROTECTIVE TARIFF. 



seem to think a tariff has a sort of creative power; that it is a posi 

 tive, productive agent; that it can do good; that it has something 

 to confer. Not so. From the very nature of it, it pours nothing in, 

 but only takes something out. Its sign is minus and not plus. It 

 comes to take something from the people, and not to give anything 

 to the people. 



The United States has been accustomed, from the beginning of 

 the government under the present constitution, to raise the princi 

 pal part of its revenue from tariff-taxes on imported goods. These 

 taxes, of course, raise the price of the goods on which they are laid 

 considerably more to the consumers than the amount of the tax it 

 self, because the tax having to be advanced by the importer and the 

 jobber, becomes larger from the profits on the money advanced; and 

 frequently, also, the tax is made a cover or excuse, under which the 

 consumer is charged a sum additional to the original tax and the 

 profits on it. In the ultimate price of the taxed goods the consumer 

 pays for the goods, pays the tax and all profits on the tax, and fre 

 quently also something additional under cover of the tax. ^ There 

 are decided objections, as we shall see, to raising a revenue in this 

 way, even when the sole purpose in laying the duties is to get rev 

 enue, and when the duties are so adjusted as that the government 

 really gets the most that the people have to pay in consequence of the 

 duties. It is very plain, that whatever tariff-taxes are levied solely 

 for the sake of the revenue to be derived from them, they ought to 

 be laid in accordance with these fundamental principles : first, on 

 goods like tea and coffee, for example, which are wholly imported 

 from abroad, and not also grown or made at home, otherwise the 

 tax on the portion imported will also incidentally raise the price of 

 the portion produced at home, and the people will have to pay more 

 in consequence of the tax than the government gets in revenue, 

 because the government only gets the tax on the part imported. 

 Second, if such taxes are to be productive, they must be levied at 

 comparatively low rates, so as not to interfere essentially with the 

 bringing in of the goods, or encourage smuggling at all, for in either 

 of those cases the revenue from the importations would fall off. 

 Third, the taxes should be simple, so that everybody can calculate 

 their amount, and know how much of the price paid is owing to the 

 tax; and it is just as much for the interest of the revenue as for that 

 of the people that these taxes should be simple and honest, so that 

 both importers and consumers, calculating them beforehand and 

 knowing just how much the government is to take, will not be de 

 terred from importing and buying by indefinite taxes; and, fourth, 

 it is agreeable to reason and has been found true in experience that 

 it is not needful to levy even low rates on all articles imported, in 

 order to realize as large revenue, but only on certain classes of them, 

 so as to burden at as few points as possible the on-going of interna 

 tional and profitable exchanges. Laid strictly on these four princi 

 ples, which are very important : (one) on goods wholly imported, 

 (two) at low rates, (three) at simple rates easily calculable, (four) on 

 few classes of goods used by almost everybody, tariff-taxes, though 

 objectionable because falling unequally on rich and poor, are yet 

 endurable, and are infinitely preferable to the tariff-taxes laid at 

 present in this country. 



