T A X 



lift 



T A \ 



he find the market : but the seller, who is 

 entb!. iiia high price lor his v. 



has H monopoly in tin- sale of them, is the only party who 



Tin- community at large differ doubly: first, by ha\ ing 



to buy dear instead of cheap goods, or by being denied 

 tin' use of thriu altogether : anil Mvoudly. by being obliged 

 to pay otlu-r taxes which would not have been required, 

 if theven articles which would have made ineir purchases 

 cheaper had been charged with a moderate impost. Kvcii 

 the seller., for whom all (|U-.M> sacrifices arc made, do not 

 derive the benefit whieh might be expected. In the 

 goods which they sell themselves, indeed, they aie gamers ; 

 but in purchasing of other monopolists they lo-e by an 

 artificially high priee, like the rest of the community. It 

 constantly happens, too, that although the prices at which 

 they sell are nigh, their prolits are reduced, by the com- 

 petition of others selling the same articles, to the general 

 level of profits throughout the country. When this is the 

 case, all parties, without exception, are losers the state, 

 the community, and the monopolists. The general injury 

 done to trade by the protective system is too extensive a 

 question to enter upon, but it is well illustrated in the 

 Report of the Committee of the Home of Commons upon 

 Import Duties' in 1840. 



Protection may be accomplished by actual prohibition 

 of the import of particular articles, by exorbitant duties 

 which amount to prohibition, or by such duties only as 

 give the home producer an advantage. Duties may also 

 discriminate bet ween the produce of different countries, 

 and give the preference to some, to the injury and ex- 

 clusion of oth. 



In this country all these modes of protection have been 

 resorted to. For the protection of agriculture, foreign 

 cattle, sheep, swine, beef, mutton, pork, and other pro- 

 \isions have bei-n entirely prohibited. High duties have 

 been placed upon the importation of corn on a sliding- 

 scale, so devised as to exclude it entirely, except in times 

 pf scarcity; and more moderate duties are payable upon 

 various articles of agricultural produce. The prohibitions 

 however have recently been removed, and moderate import 

 duties substituted. The corn-laws, though the shdmg- 

 scale is still adhered to, have been considerably modified, 

 and, it is hoped, will hereafter admit a larger amount ot 

 foreign grain, and enrich the revenue. The principle of a 

 sliding-scale, we would here observe, apart from its ge- 

 neral policy, is very injurious to the revenue. When the 

 high part of the scale is in operation, it acts as a prohibi- 

 tion ; and when the lower duties only are payable, they 

 are comparatively unproductive. The loss sustained by 

 the consumer on account of the protective duties on corn 

 has been variously estimated at from 12,000,000/. to 

 50,000,000/. a year; and yet it is well known that money- 

 invested in the purchase of land produces a very low rate 

 of interest, not exceeding 3 per cent., and that persons 

 engaged in agriculture, for whom the protection is main- 

 tained, have been continually complaining to parliament 

 of their distress. 



Upon various articles of manufacture there have been 



prohibitory and highly protective duties. In 1S25 the 



former were removed ; and the latter have, in the present 



..in of parliament (1842), been so modified as to be very 



fair taxes for the purposes of revenue. 



Duties are called discriminating when they are not 

 levied equally upon the produce or manufactures of dif- 

 ferent countries. The objeet nf them is to give an advan- 

 iiinlry on whose commodities the tax is 

 lightest, as compared with others. To obtain such a pre- 

 ference has been the object of various negotiations ami 

 commercial treaties between different states, ns it opens 

 extensive maikcts to the industry of the favoured nation. 

 Uythe present commercial policy of England, the principle 

 of discrimination may be said to be confined to the pro- 

 tection of our colonies against the competition of foreiirn 

 countries. As regards each other, all foreign countries 

 enjoy equal commercial advantages in their inter 

 with England. Our colonial jiolicy is so wide a question, 

 involving political and commercial considerations of high 

 importance, that we can only touch upon it. It max be 

 contended that colonies should form an integral part of 

 the mother country, and that the commercial intercourse 

 between the several parts of the lintish empire ought to 

 be viewed as a vast coasting-trade. If this principle were 

 acted upon, it would certainly present a grand fiscal union 

 worthy of admiration ; but the existing system docs not 



partake in any degree of the character of a coasting- 

 trade. To pal it upon Mich a footing, the duties uii 

 colonial produce imported into the 1'nilei! Kingdom fhould 

 lie little more than nominal, and we should relv upon pro- 

 ductive imposts upon foreign product 1 lor our revenue. 

 Our practice is the reverse of this. Where our tuxes dis- 

 criminate, we derive our revenue from the colonial pro- 

 duce ; and we either exclude foreign produce altogether, or 

 limit its introduction so much as to prevent it liom 

 tnbuting materially to the revenue. The object of the 

 upon the foreign produce, which would enter into 

 competition with the colonies, is not revenue, but e\ 

 sion, for the sake of creating a monopoly in favour of the 

 latter. This system we have already condemned, even 

 when established for the protection of trade and agricul- 

 ture in the mother country; and upon fiscal grounds it is 

 equally indefensible when applied to the colonies, and 

 quite as injurious to the community. There are two great 

 articles of consumption, vi/.. sugar and timber, upon 

 whieh the discriminating duties deserve especial in 



imported from the colonies pays a duty of '24*. the 

 cut.: from foreign countries (i:l,s. The disproportion is 

 so great, that foreign sugar is comparatively excluded 

 from the consumption of our people, who are forced to 

 rely upon the colonies for the supply of that important 

 article. The population of the country has rapidly in- 

 creased, and with it the demand for most articles of con- 

 sumption. It is painful to see the supply of sugar to 

 forcibly restrained by our commercial policy that th< 

 sumption has not increased for ten years. In 1KJ1, 

 3,781,011 cwts. were retained for home consumption 

 in 1840 only :}.r>m,s.T2cwts. So inadequate have the 

 colonies alone been to supply our wants, that their exports 

 have actually been diminishing. In IXtl the West Indies 

 exported to the United Kingdom 4. UU.NOOcwts. In no 

 sum eding year has their export been so great : and in 

 1840 it had'sunk so low as 2,'214.7(>4cwts. During this 

 period the consumption of coffee, cocoa, and tea had con- 

 siderably increased, and the people must therefore have 

 suffered a serious privation on account of the limited sup- 

 ply of sugar. 'Hie community is plainly a loser by the 

 colonial monopoly; and the falling off of the produce of 

 the West Indies, in spite of an increasing demand for it, 

 is not the only proof that they have not gamed much bv 

 their protection: meanwhile the revenue has lost incal- 

 culable sums by the exclusion of foreign sugar, which, 

 with moderate duties, might be imported at a low price in 

 unlimited quantities. 



The discriminating duties upon timber have been pecu- 

 liarly injurious to this countiy, and it is extremely doubtful 

 whether they have conferred any benefit upon the colo- 

 nies. They nave acted as a bounty uf !.'. the load in 

 favour of timber the growth of British possessions, and 

 have obliged the consumer either to pay a tax of 2'2."i per 

 cent, (not for purposes of revenue, but for the protection of 

 other interests), or to use an inferior article, less sui:. 

 his uses, and cheaper only by reason of the duty. Kxtcn- 

 sive charges are, happily, about to take effect, which will, 

 in some measure, equalize the duties upon foreign and 

 colonial timber. On the 10th October, ls-12. the duty 

 upon foreign timber will be reduced liom .".">. . the load, to 

 30*., and on the 10th October, 1K43. to iV. The duty on 

 colonial timber is, at the same time, to be reduced from 

 10*. to l.v. Kventually therefore the disproportion will be 

 only 24*. the load, instead of 4.V. 



Export Duties. 



We have hitherto spoken of taxes upon such commodi- 

 ties only as are consumed by the subjects of tin state im 

 whose benefit they are imposed, and which are either pro- 

 duced within the country or imported into it. Duties 

 levied upon goods exported to foreign countries are ulti- 

 mately paid by the foreign consumer, and thus have the 

 effect Of making the subject 01' one state bear the burthens 

 of another. However desirable this may appear to the 

 state, whose treasmy is ciuichcd at the expense of 



foreigners, the expediency of mob duties trill depend upon 



peculiar circumstances, and great nicety is n 'ipined in the 

 regulation of them. If a country possesses within itself 

 some produce or manufacture much in request abroad, and 

 for the production of whieh it has peculiar :u!vanti^;< 

 moderate export duly may be veiy desnaMe. In this 

 manner Russia, whieh has almost a monopoly in the 

 supply of tallow to the rest of Europe, derives a consider- 



