JB_172_439.xml

Title: [1820 Decr. 26 Go on a little further]

Description: 1820 Decr. 26

Go on a little further

Supposed resource the (...?) th. Taxes /the amount conveyed to Spain/ on the produce

of Ultramaria exported to countries other than Spain. To Ultramaria in so far

applicable this is beyond doubt of all modes of extracting money from Ultramaria for

the benefit of Spain the least burthensome to Ultramaria. The only person, on whom,

in a direct and immediate way, burthen in any shape is imposed, are the foreigners by

whom the exported goods thus taxed are consumed. If indeed by the augmentation,

encrease given to the price, the quantity tus consumed by foreigners is diminished,

to the extent of such diminution the tax operates in so far as prohibition imposed

upon the production of the articles thus taxes. But by the prohibition thus imposed

on the produce of this one article, neither prohibition nor tax is imposed upon any

other article not necessary to the production of it: whatever quantity of captial

would, but for the indirect and immediate prohibition have been employed in the

production of the article thus indirectly and immediately prohibited, is left free to

be employed in all other articles to which the prohibition does not extend. If indeed

there be no such other article to which the capital could be so applied without a

certain diminution of the rate of profit, say for example 5 per cent, on this

supposition a tax to that amount is imposed upon all those who but for the

prohibition would have employed that capital in the production of articles of that

same sort. But the existence of any such state of things the existence or not upon

the face of it to such a degree assured /probable/ as to be admitted without special

proof applied to this or that species of article in particular: and till in the

instance of some determinate species of commodity such proof is made the mode of

taxation in question will continue in possession of the character of being as far as

it goes, as burthensome to the inhabitnts of the country in which the article is

produced.

JB_172_443.xml

Title: [1820 Decr. 26 A tax produce not suffering]

Description: 1820 Decr. 26

A tax produce not suffering in an individual nor yet monopoly in the

production of the article: only diminution of profit: not

sensation of loss.

In so far as the country /territory/ in question has a natural

monopoly of the article in question, and the price of it to consumers is not by the

price put upon it by producers yet raised to the highest pitch to which it can be

raised without diminution of the consumption, a tax upon the export /paid by

foreigners/ from the producing country will not operate as a tax upon producers: they

will add that to the price they demand: at any rate they are at liberty /have the

option/ so to do without diminution of their profit.

True it is that in the instance of the foreign consumers by the whole amount of the

tax the power of purchasing and consuming goods of all sorts is diminished. But

whatever power of this sort they are in possession of it is not the whole of it that

but for the tax would have been employed in the purchase of such goods as the country

in question in the present instance Ultramaria is engaged in the production of: to

Ultramaria therefore a tax on goods which being produced in Ultramaria are consumed

by foreigners is not by a great deal so burthensome as a tax to the same amount upon

goods produced in foreign countries and consumed in Ultramaria.

JB_172_434.xml

Title: [1820 Dec 26 Rid Yourselves]

Description: 1820 Dec 26

Rid Yourselves

'. 1. Creoles willing

As in this case it is manifest to all eyes that while Ultramarians in

general are subject to /suffer from/ the burthen, Spaniards in general do not enjoy

the benefit, the consequence is that in so far as restraint in any such unproductive

shape as this is imposed on Ultramrians, it is for the purpose of conferring the

corespondent benefit - not on Spaniards /the Spanish people/ at large, but in a

particular part only of the Spanish people, and that a comparatively very small one:

namely that part which it is supposed while be received in the shape of profit of

trade by the producers or vendors of such goods.

But in this case the proportion of the benefit to the burthen is as nothing,

compared with what it is in the case of a burthen to the same amount imposed by a

tax. Suppose for example the price of those commodities exactly doubled in both cases

to the consumers in Ultramaria: in the case of the tax, the whole value of the goods,

of the deduction of the expence of collection goes into the pocket of government in

Spain, saving to the people in Spain taxes to that same amount in the case of the

prohibition, not a maravedi goes into the pocket of government from this source. The

pockets - the only pockets into which the whole or any part of it is so much as

expected to do are those of the Spanish producers or those of the Spanish vendors, of

such goods.