Let me ask whether that mass of prohibitions and restrictions, which legally establishes monopoly in England, be any thing more than a mass of privileges granted to a chosen few, to the prejudice of the whole community? Were we to look at every particular regulation, and consider it distinctly, is there one which would not find the whole nation against it, except the humble Petitioners who share in the benefit? And must it not be very strange to imagine, very absurd to say, and above human power to effect, that a system of regulations, not one of which favours above one man against thousands, should, upon the whole, be serviceable to the State?
Independent of the advantages which would arise from a truly free and judicious system of commerce, viz. 1st, That of procuring what we have not, by means of some article which we have in abundance, and which our neighbours want;—2dly, The bartering of the superfluity of our best articles in one kind, for the superfluity of what is best in a different kind;—3dly, Not to barter what we can make cheaper than others, except for goods which would cost us more were we to manufacture them;—independent, I say, of these three, advantages, where would be the inconvenience, though our bartering should be confined merely to the innocent folly of exchanging one toy for another, or one rag for another? The great, the true, the only advantage, of an exchange of property, would not even in this case be lost to mankind; the man who is employed only in marking the game, while two persons are amusing themselves, whole days, in tossing a ball from one to the other in a tennis-court, is nevertheless supported at the expence of the players. And are not the owner of the court, his wife and children, maintained likewise at their cost? If, having considered the Exchequer metaphorically, under the type of the Keeper of the Tennis Court, we afterwards, without a metaphor, consider this Keeper as a poor man who chooses this way of subsistence, do not the players pay this tax (which they impose on themselves) in favour of the poor, with more pleasure, though the tax may be greater, than a certain other tax, which perhaps becomes necessary, only from the difficulties with which we embarrass both the game of passing from one parish to another, and the game of imports and exports, which is as innocent, and more lucrative than that of tennis?
The nominal Value of the generality of Exports, considered in different Periods, and with respect to its Effect on foreign Correspondence.
When a manufacturer is compelled, by the general augmentation of prices, arising from taxation, to pay his workmen and materials ten per cent. I suppose, dearer than usual, and he exports 1000 hats, upon each of which a draw-back of 6 shillings, I will suppose, is allowed him on exportation, he does not reflect on the difference of 10 per cent. diffused through the general run of prices, by the mechanical reaction of the total of the taxes on all that is not taxed; he remembers well the effect of this reaction in the account which he makes out for himself, to know at what rate he must in future sell his hats in foreign markets; he only considers the draw-back, the remittance of the 6 shillings duty, and concludes that it puts him in a situation to deal with foreigners on the same terms as he did previous to the taxes, which have increased every thing to the amount of 10 per cent. Nevertheless, the thousand hats, with which, previous to the taxes, he furnished his foreign friends for 1000l. I will suppose, are now raised to 1200l.—Point out this circumstance to him, he will tell you he cannot sell his hats cheaper, and that foreigners must pay 1200l. instead of 1000l. since the foreigner wants them. “Besides, (says he) what is the sum of two hundred pounds more, divided among a thousand persons, who will purchase the hats from the merchant abroad, to whom he sells them?” The manufacturer does not want to look further; and the writer who from the nature of his subject, or his manner of considering it, wants only to reflect a little more, will only add, Thus it is that foreigners pay our taxes, and never suspect that they do so. This is the truth, but not the whole truth. I shall endeavour to find it out.
The general trade of England with the rest of Europe is not confined to some thousands of pounds sterling, to be settled once for all; it is an immense sum, which must be renewed every year. Let us begin by being thoroughly convinced of this necessity, in order to submit to its consequences: we shall find moreover that these consequences are not destructive.
The annual exports of England amount to about a fifth of the products of her industry, and consequently represent about a fifth of the labour of her artificers.
If the taxes, after the war of 1755, had raised the price of every thing at the rate of 10 per cent. (I can err but by a little more or less) the total of her exports, which, before that war, amounted, on a medium of ten years, (see Sir Charles Whitworth) only to a sum of 12,776,614 pounds sterling, let us say 13 millions, amounted, after the peace, to 14 millions 300 thousand.