date

[clxvii. 235] 1821 Jan 13 Rid
[clxvii. 235]

1821 Jan 13

Rid Yourselves

Part 1

Appendix

'.2

Lett. 3. Profit none

31 March 1822. Discarded from Rid Yourselves

Quere whether any thing here not inserted -

Letter 3. Profit none. Consult this on occasion of Observat n on the Prohibitive System.

Taxes are commonly divided into direct and indirect taxes. The division is not /perhaps not altogether/ exhaustive or the expression is not very characteristic: /it must be taken as it stands/ for the present such as it is known it may without considerable error be on the present occasion applied to the present purpose. In both cases there is some object of possession for the occupation of which a man is regarded as paying: in the case of the direct tax it is paid to the tax-gatherer by the occupier himself: in the case of the indirect tax it is paid to the Collector by some person of whom the occupier purchases it.

Another sort of tax there is which is not only indirect but still more inidirect than the one commonly so called as above: that being called indirect of the first order, thus, if it be termed indirect, may be termed indirect of the second order.

Such is the nature of the sort of prohibition which of its immediate effects - its effects with relation to the augmentation of the revenue in the hands of government be considered may be termed a barren one: in this case one set of men are prohibiting from dealing in this or that way in relation to a certain article, that by dealing in it without such competition another set may obtain a pecuniary advantage. The intended advantage is it actually received? /obtained?/ In proportion as it is received /so obtained/ the effect of it is the same as would be that of a tax, the produce of which were instead of being conveyed into the public treasury, distributed among the hands employed in the collection of it. Barren it certainly is with relation to the public revenue: productive it may be or unproductive with relation to the income of the class of persons /individuals/ for whose benefit it is intended.
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  • Title: [1821 Aug. 8 Rid Yourselves]
    Description: 1821 Aug. 8

    Rid Yourselves

    Lett. 3 Barren Prohibitions

    Remains for the possible subject matter of the barren prohibition,

    importation from abroad. Of this, proportioned to the extent to which it is carried,

    the result is not simply absence of profit, but positive loss. As the sum of imposing

    the prohibitions on importation the article either is or is not subject to a tax: if

    it is, whatever sum was the net produce of the tax, that is the sum lost: if it was

    not yet taxed whatever is the net sum that might have been raised by the taxation of

    it that again is the sum lost. When money /by a set of/ is thus thrown away, it must

    have been under the notion of favouring the home production either of the same sort

    of article or something that in this will it is supposed be consumed instead of it:

    the tax /money/ thus as it were thrown away is a bounty to that same amount given

    /attributed/ //applied/ to the home production of the one or the other article.

    /Generally speaking/ A very extraordinary and forced state of things excepted, taxes

    on importation are generally preferable to taxes on home production: for, generally

    speaking, articles imported into a country, are with relation to that country

    articles of luxury, articles belonging /not/ to the catalogue not of necessaries but

    to that of superfluities: for forced and extraordinary must be the state of that

    country which does not within itself afford to its inhabitants its means of

    subsistence.

    In
  • Title: [1820 Decr. 27 Rid Yourselves]
    Description: 1820 Decr. 27

    Rid Yourselves

    ' 1. Creoles willing

     The copy of this is to come in here of N o 3 in

    the present copy

    3. Supposable resource the third - barren

    prohibitions (a)

    Text resumed.

    By this term barren, no sooner is its the

    propriety of its application to the restriction in question seen, than the

    unpropriety of placing it upon the list of financial resources, stands demonstrated.

    What it produces is individuals subjected to the coercion more or less of the burthen

    to the persons concerned in enforcing it more or less of the odium of a tax: what it

    does not in any part produce is the benefit of a tax (b)

    Note (a)

    (a) In a financial view, prohibitions are either productive or barren.

    Productive financial prohibitions are taxes. Taxes are prohibitions; for they inhibit

    the use of the taxed article, in case of non-payment of the tax: in the instance of

    all such employers of the article as pay the tax, the /restriction/ operates as a tax

    and not as a prohibition: in the instance of all such as, to avoid the tax, abstain

    from employing the article, it operates as a barren prohibition obeyed: in the instance of all such as avoid the tax but use the article

    notwithstanding, it operates as a prohibition disobeyed.

    Note (b)

    Yet, in the system by which Spanish Ultramaria has been wont to be

    governed by Spain, barren prohibitions, it is said have place to a vast extent. But

    to bring to view in all its particulars the injustice and mischievousness of such

    restrictions would in this place be a digression. It claims a separate head. +

     From here, go on and copy and then cancel, the remainder of p. 2 in the existing

    copy.
  • Title: [[clxvii. 113] 1821 March 30]
    Description: [clxvii. 113]

    1821 March 30

    Rid Yourselves

    11. Anticonstitutional Evils

    4. Consumption of Cortes time

    In any such /the case/ /instance/ District Pueblo suppose a deficiency in the funds which it has at its disposal, in such sort that in the judgement of the Ayuntamiento it should be necessary to impose certain sorts of taxes called arbitrios (taxes on eatables and drinkables exposed to sale) not a maravedi says Article 322 is to be laid on "without the approbation of the Cortes obtained through the intervention of the Provincial Deputation". Provided however that if the case be urgent the tax may, with the approbation of the Provincial Deputation, be imposed, in the mean time and until the pleasure /a determination/ of the Cortes to the contrary has been made known mientras nean la resolucion de las Corts.

    Thus not a fresh maravedi can for any fresh purpose be wanted in any part /any where/ in Spanish Ultramaria, but a fresh demand must be made upon the Cortes for its time.