An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith [e book reader pdf TXT] 📗
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to be opened but in his presence. If the merchant carried them to
his own private warehouse, the duties to be immediately paid, and
never afterwards to be drawn back ; and that warehouse to be at
all times subject to the visit and examination of the
custom-house officer, in order to ascertain how far the quantity
contained in it corresponded with that for which the duty had
been paid. If he carried them to the public warehouse, no duty to
be paid till they were taken out for home comsumption. If taken
out for exportation, to be duty-free; proper security being
always given that they should be so exported. The dealers in
those particular commodities, either by wholesale or retail, to
be at all times subject to the visit and examination of the
custom-house officer; and to be obliged to justify, by proper
certificates, the payment of the duty upon the whole quantity
contained in their shops or warehouses. What are called the
excise duties upon rum imported, are at present levied in this
manner ; and the same system of administration might, perhaps, be
extended to all duties upon goods imported ; provided always that
those duties were, like the duties of excise, confined to a few
sorts of goods of the most general use and consumption. If they
were extended to almost all sorts of goods, as at present, public
warehouses of sufficient extent could not easily be provided; and
goods of a very delicate nature, or of which the preservation
required much care and attention, could not safely be trusted by
the merchant in any warehouse but his own.
If, by such a system of administration, smuggling to any
considerable extent could be prevented, even under pretty high
duties ; and if every duty was occasionally either heightened or
lowered according as it was most likely, either the one way or
the other, to afford the greatest revenue to the state; taxation
being always employed as an instrument of revenue, and never of
monopoly ; it seems not improbable that a revenue, at least equal
to the present neat revenue of the customs, might be drawn from
duties upon the importation of only a few sorts of goods of the
most general use and consumption ; and that the duties of customs
might thus be brought to the same degree of simplicity,
certainty, and precision, as those of excise. What the revenue at
present loses by drawbacks upon the re-exportation of foreign
goods, which are afterwards relanded and consumed at home,
would, under this system, be saved altogether. If to this saving,
which would alone be very considerable, were added the abolition
of all bounties upon the exportation of home produce ; in all
cases in which those bounties were not in reality drawbacks of
some duties of excise which had before been advanced ; it cannot
well be doubted, but that the neat revenue of customs might,
after an alteration of this kind, be fully equal to what it had
ever been before.
If, by such a change of system, the public revenue suffered no
loss, the trade and manufactures of the country would certainly
gain a very considerable advantage. The trade in the commodities
not taxed, by far the greatest number would be perfectly free,
and might be carried on to and from all parts of the world with
every possible advantage. Among those commodities would be
comprehended all the necessaries of life, and all the materials
of manufacture. So far as the free importation of the necessaries
of life reduced their average money price in the home market, it
would reduce the money price of labour, but without reducing in
any respect its real recompence. The value of money is in
proportion to the quantity of the necessaries of life which it
will purchase. That of the necessaries of life is altogether
independent of the quantity of money which can be had for them.
The reduction in the money price of labour would necessarily be
attended with a proportionable one in that of all home
manufactures, which would thereby gain some advantage in all
foreign markets. The price of some manufactures would be reduced,
in a still greater proportion, by the free importation of the raw
materials. If raw silk could be imported from China and Indostan,
duty-free, the silk manufacturers in England could greatly
undersell those of both France and Italy. There would be no
occasion to prohibit the importation of foreign silks and
velvets. The cheapness of their goods would secure to our own
workmen, not only the possession of a home, but a very great
command of the foreign market. Even the trade in the commodities
taxed, would be carried on with much more advantage than at
present. If those commodities were delivered out of the public
warehouse for foreign exportation, being in this case exempted
from all taxes, the trade in them would be perfectly free. The
carrying trade, in all sorts of goods, would, under this system,
enjoy every possible advantage. If these commodities were
delivered out for home consumption, the importer not being
obliged to advance the tax till he had an opportunity of selling
his goods, either to some dealer, or to some consumer, he could
always afford to sell them cheaper than if he had been obliged to
advance it at the moment of importation. Under the same taxes,
the foreign trade of consumption, even in the taxed commodities,
might in this manner be carried on with much more advantage than
it is at present.
It was the object of the famous excise scheme of Sir Robert
Walpole, to establish, with regard to wine and tobacco, a system
not very unlike that which is here proposed. But though the bill
which was then brought into Parliament, comprehended those two
commodities only, it was generally supposed to be meant as an
introduction to a more extensive scheme of the same kind.
Faction, combined with the interest of smuggling merchants,
raised so violent, though so unjust a clamour, against that bill,
that the minister thought proper to drop it ; and, from a dread
of exciting a clamour of the same kind, none of his successors
have dared to resume the project.
The duties upon foreign luxuries, imported for home consumption,
though they sometimes fall upon the poor, fall principally upon
people of middling or more than middling fortune. Such are, for
example, the duties upon foreign wines, upon coffee, chocolate,
tea, sugar, etc.
The duties upon the cheaper luxuries of home produce, destined
for home consumption, fall pretty equally upon people of all
ranks, in proportion to their respective expense. The poor pay
the duties upon malt, hops, beer, and ale, upon their own
consumption ; the rich, upon both their own consumption and that
of their servants.
The whole consumption of the inferior ranks of people, or of
those below the middling rank, it must be observed, is, in every
country, much greater, not only in quantity, but in value, than
that of the middling, and of those above the middling rank. The
whole expense of the inferior is much greater titan that of the
superior ranks. In the first place, almost the whole capital of
every country is annually distributed among the inferior ranks of
people, as the wages of productive labour. Secondly, a great
part of the revenue, arising from both the rent of land and the
profits of stock, is annually distributed among the same rank, in
the wages and maintenance of menial servants, and other
unproductive labourers. Thirdly, some part of the profits of
stock belongs to the same rank, as a revenue arising from the
employment of their small capitals. The amount of the profits
annually made by small shopkeepers, tradesmen, and retailers of
all kinds, is everywhere very considerable, and makes a very
considerable portion of the annual produce. Fourthly and lastly,
some part even of the rent of land belongs to the same rank ; a
considerable part to those who are somewhat below the middling
rank, and a small part even to the lowest rank ; common labourers
sometimes possessing in property an acre or two of land. Though
the expense of those inferior ranks of people, therefore, taking
them individually, is very small, yet the whole mass of it,
taking them collectively, amounts always to by much the largest
portion of the whole expense of the society ; what remains of the
annual produce of the land and labour of the country, for the
consumption of the superior ranks, being always much less, not
only in quantity, but in value. The taxes upon expense,
therefore, which fall chiefly upon that of the superior ranks of
people, upon the smaller portion of the annual produce, are
likely to be much less productive than either those which fall
indifferently upon the expense of all ranks, or even those which
fall chiefly upon that of the inferior ranks, than either those
which fall indifferently upon the whole annual produce, or those
which fall chiefly upon the larger portion of it. The excise upon
the materials and manufacture of homemade fermented and
spirituous liquors, is, accordingly, of all the different taxes
upon expense, by far the most productive ; and this branch of the
excise falls very much, perhaps principally, upon the expense of
the common people. In the year which ended on the 5th of July
1775, the gross produce of this branch of the excise amounted to
�3,341,837:9:9.
It must always be remembered, however, that it is the luxuries,
and not the necssary expense of the inferior ranks of people,
that ought ever to be taxed. The final payment of any tax upon
their necessary expense, would fall altogether upon the superior
ranks of people; upon the smaller portion of the annual produce,
and not upon the greater. Such a tax must, in all cases, either
raise the wages of labour, or lessen the demand for it. It could
not raise the wages of labour, without throwing the final payment
of the tax upon the superior ranks of people. It could not lessen
the demand for labour, without lessening the annual produce of
the land and labour of the country, the fund upon which all taxes
must be finally paid. Whatever might be the state to which a tax
of this kind reduced the demand for labour, it must always raise
wages higher than they otherwise would be in that state ; and the
final payment of this enhancement of wages must, in all cases,
fall upon the superior ranks of people.
Fermented liquors brewed, and spiritous liquors distilled, not
for sale, but for private use, are not in Great Britain liable to
any duties of excise. This exemption, of which the object is to
save private families from the odious visit and examination of
the tax-gatherer, occasions the burden of those duties to fall
frequently much lighter upon the rich than upon the poor. It is
not, indeed, very common to distil for private use, though it is
done sometimes. But in the country, many middling and almost all
rich and great families, brew their own beer. Their strong beer,
therefore, costs them eight shillings a-barrel less than it costs
the common brewer, who must have his profit upon the tax, as well
as upon all the other expense which he advances. Such families,
therefore, must drink their beer at least nine or ten shillings
a-barrel cheaper than any liquor of the same quality can be drank
by the common people, to whom it is everywhere more convenient to
buy their beer, by little and little, from the brewery or the
alehouse. Malt, in the same manner, that is made for the use of
a private family, is not liable to the visit or examination of
the tax-gatherer but, in this case the family must compound
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