Author
David Ricardo
The same voice, gathered in one place.
On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 241
Taxes on those commodities, which are generally denominated luxuries, fall on those only who make use of them. A tax on wine is paid by the…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 242
A tax on hats will raise the price of hats; a tax on shoes, the price of shoes; if this were not the case, the tax would be finally paid by the…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 243
In the same manner a tax on the profits of the farmer would raise the price of corn; a tax on the profits of the clothier, the price of cloth; and if…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 244
If money be taxed, or if by any other cause its value be altered, and all commodities remain precisely at the same price as before, the profits of…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 245
Will not this principle account for the different effects, which it was remarked were produced on the prices of commodities, from the altered value…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 246
If the profits of all trades were taxed, excepting the profits of the farmer, all goods would rise in money value, excepting raw produce. The…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 247
The landlord too would be precisely in the same situation, he would have the same corn, and the same money rent as before, if all commodities rose in…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 248
But suppose the profits of the farmer to be also taxed, he then would be in the same situation as other traders; his raw produce would rise, so…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 249
A tax on the profits of stock would also affect the stockholder, if all commodities were to rise in proportion to the tax; but if from the alteration…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 250
As taxes on raw produce, tithes, taxes on wages, and on the necessaries of the labourer, will, by raising wages, lower profits, they will all, though…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 251
The discovery of machinery, which materially improves home manufactures, always tends to raise the relative value of money, and therefore to…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 252
Taxes on wages will raise wages, and therefore will diminish the rate of the profits of stock. We have already seen that a tax on necessaries will…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 253
"The wages of the inferior classes of workmen," says Adam Smith, "I have endeavoured to shew in the first book, are every where necessarily regulated…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 254
The natural price of commodities, which always ultimately governs their market price, depends on the facility of production; but the quantity…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 255
"The price of labour will express, clearly, the wants of the society respecting population;" it will be just sufficient to support the population,…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 256
Nothing is more common, than to see hats or malt rise when taxed; they rise because the requisite supply would not be afforded if they did not rise:…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 257
Adam Smith, as we have seen, has fully allowed that the effect of a tax on wages would be to raise wages by a sum at least equal to the tax, and…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 258
If then neither the labourers nor the manufacturers would contribute towards such a tax; if the farmers would be also recompensed by a fall of rent,…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 259
Now it will not be disputed that the clothier, the hatter, and all other manufacturers, are consumers of each other's goods; it will not be…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 260
But if the labourers pay no part of the tax, and yet manufactured commodities rise in price, wages must rise, not only to compensate them for the tax…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 261
All the effects which are produced on the profits of stock and the wages of labour, by a rise of rent and a rise of necessaries, in the natural…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 262
The error of Adam Smith proceeds in the first place from supposing, that all taxes paid by the farmer must necessarily fall on the landlord, in the…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 263
If taxes press unequally on the farmer, he will be enabled to raise the price of raw produce, to place himself on a level with those who carry on…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 264
If they could all raise the price of their goods, so as to remunerate themselves, with a profit, for the tax; as they are all consumers of each other…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 265
I hope then that I have succeeded in shewing, that any tax which shall have the effect of raising wages, will be paid by a diminution of profits, and…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 266
One, and I think the only one of the disadvantages of a low value of silver in a country, proceeding from a forced abundance, has been ably explained…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 267
By not allowing a free trade in the precious metals when the prices of commodities are raised, either by taxation, or by the influx of the precious…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 268
The exchanges between countries are at par only, whilst they have precisely that quantity of currency which in the actual situation of things they…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 269
It is undoubtedly true, that "taxes upon luxuries have no tendency to raise the price of any other commodities, except that of the commodities taxed;…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 270
Now as Dr. Smith does not contend that the tanner, the salt-maker, the soap-maker, and the candle-maker, will either of them be benefited by the…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 271
Dr. Smith uniformly, and I think justly, contends, that the labouring classes cannot materially contribute to the burdens of the state. A tax on…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 272
Suppose the just share of the taxes of a rich consumer to be 100_l._, and that he would pay it directly, if the tax were laid on income, on wine,…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 273
M. Say does not appear to me to have consistently adhered to the obvious principle, which I have quoted from his able work; for in the next page,…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 274
Without calling in question the policy, which dictated this alteration of the tax, I may be permitted to doubt whether it gave any great stimulus…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 275
Whether taxes be taken from revenue or capital, they diminish the taxable commodities of the state. If I cease to expend 100_l._ on wine, because…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 276
Taxation can never be so equally applied, as to operate in the same proportion on the value of all commodities, and still to preserve them at the…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 277
That a commodity when taxed can no longer be so profitably exported, is so well understood, that a drawback is frequently allowed on its exportation,…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 278
Taxes on luxuries have some advantage over taxes on necessaries. They are generally paid from income, and therefore do not diminish the productive…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 279
On the same principle that a tax on corn would raise the price of corn, a tax on any other commodity would raise the price of that commodity. If…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 280
The taxing of all commodities, whether they be necessaries or luxuries, will, while money remains at an unaltered value, raise their prices by a…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 281
When a commodity is at a monopoly price, it is at the very highest price at which the consumers are willing to purchase it. Commodities are only at a…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 282
Raw produce is not at a monopoly price, because the market price of barley and wheat is as much regulated by their cost of production, as the…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 283
The corn and raw produce of a country, may indeed for a time sell at a monopoly price; but they can do so permanently only when no more capital can…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 284
It is remarkable that both Adam Smith and Mr. Buchanan, who entirely agree that taxes on raw produce, a land-tax, and tithes, all fall on the rent of…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 285
It appears then to be the opinion of Mr. Buchanan, that a tax on malt would raise the price of malt, but that a tax on the barley from which malt…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 286
The following argument of M. Say is founded on the same views as Mr. Buchanan's: "The quantity of wine or corn which a piece of land will produce,…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 287
"Now, if the quantity of produce supplied, and the quantity demanded, necessarily continue the same, notwithstanding the establishment or the…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 288
"Will it be said that the farmer, he who furnishes labour and capital, will, jointly with the landlord, bear the burden of this tax? certainly not;…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 289
If the tax "took away half, or even three-fourths of the net produce of the land," and the price of produce did not rise, how could those farmers…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 290
"We see in Scotland poor lands thus cultivated by the proprietor, and which could be cultivated by no other person. Thus too we see in the interior…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 291
We have seen that taxes on raw produce, and on the profits of the farmer, will fall on the consumer of raw produce; since unless he had the power…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 292
The poor rate is a tax which partakes of the nature of all these taxes, and under different circumstances falls on the consumer of raw produce and…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 293
The poor rates are professed to be levied on the farmer in proportion to his rent; and accordingly, the farmer who paid a very small rent, or no rent…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 294
The commencement of war after a long peace, or of peace after a long war, generally produces considerable distress in trade. It changes in a great…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 295
The distress which proceeds from a revulsion of trade, is often mistaken for that which accompanies a diminution of the national capital, and a…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 296
In rich and powerful countries where large capitals are invested in machinery, more distress will be experienced from a revulsion in trade, than in…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 297
It has, however, been said that capital cannot be withdrawn from the land; that it takes the form of expenses, which cannot be recovered, such as…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 298
However low the price of corn might fall; if capital could not be removed from the land, and the demand did not increase, no importation would take…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 299
But there is this advantage always resulting from a relatively low price of corn,--that the division of the actual production is more likely to…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 300
Agriculture like all other trades, and particularly in a commercial country, is subject to a re-action, which, in an opposite direction, succeeds the…
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