such a tax might occasion in the wages of
country labour would be advanced by the farmer,
who, in order to maintain the name number
of labourers as before, would he obliged
to employ a greater capital. In order to get
back this greater capital, together with the
ordinary profits of stock, it would be necessary
that he should retain a larger portion, or,
what comes to the same thing, the price of a
larger portion, of the produce of the land,
and, consequently, that he should pay less
rent to the landlord. The final payment of
this rise of wages, therefore, would, in this
case, fall upon the landlord, together with the
additional profit of the farmer who had advanced
it. In all cases, a direct tax upon the
wages of labour must, in the long-run, occasion
both a greater reduction in the rent of
land, and a greater rise in the price of manufactured
goods than would have followed from
the proper assessment of a sum equal to the
produce of the tax, partly upon the rent of
land, and partly upon consumable commodities.
If direct taxes upon the wages of labour
have not always occasioned a proportionable
rise in those wages, it is because they have
generally occasioned a considerable fall in the
demand of labour. The declension of industry,
the decrease of employment for the
poor, the diminution of the annual produce
of the land and labour of the country, have
generally been the effects of such taxes. In
consequence of them, however, the price of
labor must always be higher than it otherwise
would have been in the actual state of
the demand; and this enhancement of price,
together with the profit of those who advance
it, must always be finally paid by the landlords
and consumers.
A tax upon the wages of country labour
does not raise the price of the rude produce
of land in proportion to the tax; for the
same reason that a tax upon the farmer's
profit does not raise that price in that proportion.
Absurd and destructive as such taxes are,
however, they take place in many countries.
In France, that part of the taille which is
charged upon the industry of workmen and
day-labourers in country villages, is properly
a tax of this kind. Their wages are computed
according to the common rate of the
district in which they reside; and, that they
may be as little liable as possible to any overcharge,
their yearly gains are estimated at no
more than two hundred working days in the
year.[68] The tax of each individual is varied
from year to year, according to different circumstances,
of which the collector or the commissary,
whom the intendant appoints to assist
him, are the judges. In Bohemia, in
consequence of the alteration in the system
of finances which was begun in 1748, a very
heavy tax is imposed upon the industry of artificers.
They are divided into four classes.
The highest class pay a hundred florins a-year,
which, at two-and-twenty pence half
penny a-florin, amounts to L.9 : 7 : 6. The
second class are taxed at seventy; the third at
fifty; and the fourth, comprehending artificers
in villages, and the lowest class of those in
towns, at twenty-five florins.[69]
The recompence of ingenious artists, and
of men of liberal professions, I have endeavoured
to show in the first book, necessarily
keeps a certain proportion to the emoluments
of inferior trades. A tax upon this recompence,
therefore, could have no other effect
than to raise it somewhat higher than in proportion
to the tax. If it did not rise in this
manner, the ingenious arts and the liberal
professions, being no longer upon a level
with other trades, would be so much deserted,
that they would soon return to that level.
The emoluments of offices are not, like
those of trades and professions, regulated by
the free competition of the market, and do
not, therefore, always bear a just proportion
to what the nature of the employment requires.
They are, perhaps, in most countries, higher
than it requires; the persons who have the
administration of government being generally
disposed to regard both themselves and their
immediate dependents, rather more than enough.
The emoluments offices, therefore,
can, in most cases, very well bear to be taxed.
The persons, besides, who enjoy public offices,
especially the more lucrative, are, in all
countries, the objects of general envy; and a
tax upon their emoluments, even though it
should be somewhat higher than upon any
other sort of revenue, is always a very popular
tax. In England, for example, when, by
the land-tax, every other sort of revenue was
supposed to be assessed at four shillings in
the pound, it was very popular to lay a real
tax of five shillings and sixpence in the pound
upon the salaries of offices which exceeded a
hundred pounds a-year; the pensions of the
younger branches of the royal family, the pay
of the officers of the army and navy, and a
few others less obnoxious to envy, excepted.
There are in England no other direct taxes
upon the wages of labour.
ART. IV.—Taxes which it is intended should
fall indifferently upon every different Species of Revenue.
The taxes which it is intended should fall
indifferently upon every different species of
revenue, are capitation taxes, and taxes upon
consumable commodities. These must be paid
indifferently, from whatever revenue the
contributors may possess; from the rent of their