On the Collection of Revenue (cont.) [pp. 300-307]

COLLECTION OF REVENUE.
But we must have a revenue; how shall we obtain it? Free
trade and direct taxation we almost unanimously reject, and protection we equally reject.
Should we not then first tax such articles as are not of prime necessity,-such as tea, coffee, sugar, liquors, spices and silk goods;
next, the interests which are the farthest removed from labor, —such as licenses, incomes, stamps, banks anid the like?
When we have exhausted these sources of revenue, should we not
rather levy a duty upon such commodities as represent the larger
amount of human labor, skill and invention, and the lesser amount
of the gratuity of Nature?
Wool, hemp, jute, cotton, copper ore, salt, linseed, hides, skins
and the like represent commodities which are the product mainly of
Nature, supplemented by a small degree of the effort or labor of
man, anrd that labor of the lowest grade. If we place an obstacle
in the way of the importation of the free gifts of Nature, we place
ourselves at a disadvantage as compared with all other nations who
accept them thankfully.
W\Te would select rather, as the sources from which we can derive
the remainder of our revenue with the least disadvantage, such
commodities as are mainly the result of human labor or skill, and
these we find in what are called manufactures; in these we find
but a small portion of the gratuity of nature, and a large portion
of the skill or invention and of the labor of man. And as other
countries have, in the production of certain manufactures (using
the word manufactures in its ordinary sense), greater skill, and
more abundant and cheaper labor than we have, we can impose a
tariff for revenue upon such manufactures, from which shall arise a
certain amount of stimulus to home production; but which, being
imposed at a rate representing a sum less than the difference in the
measure of the labor required to produce the commodity abroad as
compared with the labor required to produce it at home, will
yield the revenue at a cost to the community of the revenue itself,
and no more.
I cannot close this treatise in a better manner than by submitting the following propositions:
Perfect protection is impracticable; but, if practicable, would
cause all revenue from imports to cease, and render direct taxation
imperative.
If perfect and equal protection were practicable, it would simply
result in a general rise in prices and in wages, and since it would
prevent exports and consequently imports, it would decrease the
aggregate of commodities, or in other words, the aggregate result of
labor; and since capital is the surplus result of labor, a decrease in
the aggregate would be a decrease in the surplus. The amount of
capital would therefore be less in proportion to the number of laborers, and this condition of things would be to the disadvantage of
the laborer, since, as we have before quoted from Bastiat, "In proportion to the increase of capital, the absolute share of the total
304