not necessarily diminish the ability of the inferior
ranks of people to bring up families.
Upon the sober and industrious poor, taxes
upon such commodities act as sumptuary laws,
and dispose them either to moderate, or to
refrain altogether from the use of superfluities
which they can no longer easily afford. Their
ability to bring up families, in consequence
of this forced frugality, instead of being diminished,
is frequently, perhaps, increased by
the tax. It is the sober and industrious poor
who generally bring up the most numerous
families, and who principally supply the demand
for useful labour. All the poor, indeed,
are not sober and industrious; and the
dissolute and disorderly might continue to indulge
themselves in the use of such commodities,
after this rise of price, in the same manner
as before, without regarding the distress
which this indulgence might bring upon their
families. Such disorderly persons, however,
seldom rear up numerous families, their children
generally perishing from neglect, mismanagement,
and the scantiness or unwholesomeness
of their food. If, by the strength of
their constitution, they survive the hardships
to which the bad conduct of their parents exposes
them, yet the example of that bad conduct
commonly corrupts their morals; so that,
instead of being useful to society by their industry,
they become public nuisances by their
vices and disorders. Though the advanced
price of the luxuries of the poor, therefore,
might increase somewhat the distress of such
disorderly families, and thereby diminish somewhat
their ability to bring up children, it would
not probably diminish much the useful population
of the country.
Any rise in the average price of necessaries,
unless it be compensated by a proportionable
rise in the wages of labour, must necessarily
diminish, more or less, the ability of the poor
to bring up numerous families, and, consequently,
to supply the demand for useful labour;
whatever may be the state of that demand,
whether increasing, stationary, or declining;
or such as requires an increasing,
stationary, or declining population.
Taxes upon luxuries have no tendency to
raise the price of any other commodities, except
that of the commodities taxed. Taxes
upon necessaries, by raising the wages of labour,
necessarily tend to raise the price of all
manufactures, and consequently to diminish
the extent of their sale and consumption.
Taxes upon luxuries are finally paid by the
consumers of the commodities taxed, without
any retribution. They fall indifferently
upon every species of revenue, the wages of
labour, the profits of stock, and the rent of
land. Taxes upon necessaries, so far as they
affect the labouring poor, are finally paid,
partly by landlords, in the diminished rent of
their lands, and partly by rich consumers,
whether landlords or others, in the advanced
price of manufactured goods; and always
with a considerable overcharge. The advanced
price of such manufactures as are real
necessaries of life, and are destined for the
consumption of the poor, of coarse woollens,
for example, must be compensated to the
poor by a farther advancement of their wages.
The middling and superior ranks of people,
if they understood their own interest, ought
always to oppose all taxes upon the necessaries
of life, as well as all taxes upon the
wages of labour. The final payment of both
the one and the other falls altogether upon
themselves, and always with a considerable
overcharge. They fall heaviest upon the
landlords, who always pay in a double
capacity; in that of landlords, by the reduction,
of their rent; and in that of rich consumers,
by the increase of their expense.
The observation of Sir Matthew Decker, that
certain taxes are, in the price of certain goods,
sometimes repeated and accumulated four or
five times, is perfectly just with regard to
taxes upon the necessaries of life. In the
price of leather, for example, you must pay not
only for the tax upon the leather of your own
shoes, but for a part of that upon those of the
shoemaker and the tanner. You must pay,
too, for the tax upon the salt, upon the soap,
and upon the candles which those workmen
consume while employed in your service; and
for the tax upon the leather, which the salt-maker,
the soap-maker, and the candle-maker
consume, while employed in their service.
In Great Britain, the principal taxes upon
the necessaries of life, are those upon the
four commodities just now mentioned, salt,
leather, soap, and candles.
Salt is a very ancient and a very universal
subject of taxation. It was taxed among the
Romans, and it is so at present in, I believe,
every part of Europe. The quantity annually
consumed by any individual is so small,
and may be purchased so gradually, that nobody,
it seems to have been thought, could
feel very sensibly even a pretty heavy tax upon
it. It is in England taxed at three shillings
and fourpence a bushel; about three times
the original price of the commodity. In some
other countries, the tax is still higher. Leather
is a real necessary of life. The use of
linen renders soap such. In countries where
the winter nights are long, candles are a necessary
instrument of trade. Leather and
soap are in Great Britain taxed at three halfpence
a-pound; candles at a penny; taxes
which, upon the original price of leather, may
amount to about eight or ten per cent.; upon
that of soap, to about twenty or five-and-twenty
per cent.; and upon that of candles
to about fourteen or fifteen per cent.; taxes
which, though lighter than that upon salt,
are still very heavy. As all those four commodities
are real necessaries of life, such
heavy taxes upon them must increase some