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.
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    Description: 1821 Aug. 8

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    Inserendum in Text or Note in or after p. 4 of the fair copy under

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    So far from being with reference to receipt of money by government, /rulers/ and

    thence saving in taxes to subject Colonies so far from being productive, these barren prohibitions - these

    prohibitions that do not operate as taxes are preventive.

    The act or subject matter to which the prohibition applies itself is either

    production or importation: production at home or importation from abroad. From /If

    no/ prohibition applied to home production nothing better than loss can be the

    result. Left to himself every individual betakes himself to the production of those

    articles from the production of which, in his view /judgement/ of the matter most

    profit to himself can arise: and on this question /in relation to this matter/ his

    judgement is much more likely to be much more correct than that a set of men to whom

    he and his affairs are unknown - as is the case with his rulers whoever they are;

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    means of knowledge are next to nothing, the interest they take in his prosperity

    still less. Accordingly on home production /particular articles/ in any such view as

    that of giving encrease to the aggregate of home production prohibition is not very

    extensively exemplified. If /When/ such prohibition is employed it is either in the

    view of favouring the inhabitants of one part of the country at the expence of the

    other, as in the case of the tyranny so long exercised by English rulers over

    Ireland, or for the purpose of favouring the importation of that same article or a

    rival one that if on the importation of it a tax might be imposed: a tax which if

    thus imposed upon importation from abroad /a foreign country/ might be levied with

    more facility than if imposed on production or distribution within the country

    itself. On this principle does the production of tobacco in England stand prohibited

    by English law: on this principle does the production of wine in Spanish Ultramaria

    stand prohibited by Spanish Law.
  • 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

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    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

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  • Title: [[clxvii. 235] 1821 Jan 13 Rid]
    Description: [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.