chap, v.] WEST INDIES. 31 f 
great profit besides. Reverse the circumstances, 
and he finds himself a considerable loser. All this is 
the necessary and unavoidable nature of commer¬ 
cial adventure, which is only prosperous as it con¬ 
trives to feed the market properly ; or, in other 
words, to make the supply no more than adequate 
to the demand: Thus the taxes on leather, soap, 
candles, malt, beer, and spirits, by enhancing the 
price to, may be said to fall on, the consumers ; for 
as the manufacturers have it in their power, so they 
proportion the supply to the demand, and bring to 
market no more than sufficient to answer the con¬ 
sumption, and if, after all, they cannot obtain a living- 
profit, they cease to deal in those commodities. 
It is the same in regard to tea, wines, and other 
commodities, the growth or manufacture of foreign 
nations, over whose exports xve have no controul.. 
The merchant importer governs his imports by the 
demand which he computes there will be at the 
British market for the commodity; and ceases to 
import such goods as he finds will not yield him a 
profit, after the duty and $11 other charges are reim¬ 
bursed. 
But, in the case of articles which the situation or 
necessities of the owner bring to sale, and for which 
no other vent can be found, it is impossible that any 
duties or taxes which the commodity may have 
paid in its way to market, can have any effect on the 
price ; for the price arises from the demand, and the 
demand from the buyer’s wants, which it would be 
