The first case is evidently false, since Sir Charles Whitworth’s Statements prove that the exports of England, which amounted, as we have before observed, upon a medium of 10 years before the war, only to 12 millions 776,614 pounds sterling, amounted, upon a medium of 10 years after the peace, to 14 millions 921,067 pounds sterling, and even to 15 millions 11,211 pounds sterling, if we take a medium of 12 years from the peace to 1773, at which period Sir Charles Whitworth’s Statements conclude; (which exhibits, independently of the nominal augmentation supposed to have been occasioned by the taxes, a real augmentation of about a 17th, notwithstanding the real vacuum owing to the loss of those men who would have increased this exportation, if they had not perished in Germany, India, America, and at sea.)
The second case is more universally acknowledged to be false, since there is not a single country in Europe where the price of every thing has not, upon a medium, increased at least 10 per cent. from 1754 to 1770;—which proves the truth of the third case:—thus it happens that foreigners have paid the old taxes of England, without suspecting it; as England does not, in the least, suspect that those taxes are no longer paid either in England or elsewhere, although their produce returns nevertheless to the public creditor.
Let us consider, however, whether this general increase of prices could finally prove prejudicial to England, or to her connexions abroad.
It could not prove so to England, because she was obliged to submit to this increase, or else to give up the manufacturing of a tenth of the commodities she exported to foreign countries (where she exports nothing of what she can sell at home), and because a deficiency of a 10th of her exports would have inevitably deprived a 50th of her artisans of sustenance, and rendered useless a 50th of the capitals devoted to exportation. Besides, considering this object in another light, what loss would England sustain by receiving, under the denomination of 14, I suppose, the same commodities which before were furnished for 13, while she gave for the purchase, only 13 (old prices) which the effect of taxation made her call 14?
It could not prejudice her foreign connexions, because this increase of prices, which abroad was not owing to taxation, was only an encouragement to labour, which must in general have increased its products, always entitled to a profit over and above the price paid for that labour.
A circumstance which was necessary for England, without doing her the least harm, has, then, proved useful to the rest of Europe.⸺
But let up remark two very essential points:
The first is, that it is impossible in the nature of things, to keep up foreign consumption, upon which depends the continuation of our exports, without giving foreigners leave to increase the price of theirs, by so much as the commodities carried to them must be increased by our taxes;—in the same manner as it is impossible in the nature of things, to keep up interior consumption, national consumption, upon which depends the payment of taxes, without a general interior increase in the price of labour, as well as in the price of its products, when the wants of the State require new contributions.
The second observation which I deem equally essential, is, that such a work, (a work of an utility which may be called universal) has been brought about, consummated, without the Ministers of any State whatsoever being entitled to any glory from the event, except that of having facilitated the operation, if they have favoured the general liberty of communication in all articles of trade; and without their having deserved any other blame but that of retarding it, if their zeal, their greediness for the favourable balance, has suggested to them any device to attract and overthrow it in the only country entrusted to their management. We must universally ruin Credit, Trade, Commerce, and the Banking business, if we pretend to prevent Wealth from extending itself universally, a little sooner or later. The owner of any kind of riches whatever, has it not in his power to do any thing else, but to choose the place, the object, and the time, of giving the first motion; all the rest is merely the effect of a stone cast into the water: observe how the undulations succeed one another, how they are renewed and extended;—can you fix the point where they shall stop?—We pretend to direct them!—Scilicet is superûm labor est? ... Istæne animia cœlestibus curæ?—Indeed, indeed, too many cares occupy the minds of our Gods!
I return to the grand points.