1822 March 28

Rid Yourselves

Part I

Letter 3 Ultramaria Submissive

In the case of this or that article suppose a prohibition put not

only the importation of it from any foreign country or from any Ultramarian Province

into another, but even upon the production of it in the Province in which the demand

for the consumption of it has place. In the character of a source of profit to you

and your rulers and your operating in diminution of the burthen of taxes would any

such operation be worth employing? I answer without difficulty in the negative To aid

conception, take for example the prohibition put upon wine making in so many

Ultramarian Provinces, for the purpose of forcing the people to resort /have

recourse/ for that article to Peninsula Spain: in which case money might be levied in

/taken from/ the Ultramarian consumer either by a tax on the export of it from the

Peninsula, or by a tax on the import of it into the Ultramarian Provinces, or in both

ways.

I answer /The answer is/ If in either way or in any other way profit

is received from the source in Peninsula Spain under the nature of diminution of the

burthen in the shape of taxes payable there, it will by by the Ultramarian consumer

be seen to be a tax upon him, and in his breast dissatisfaction will thus be produced

exactly as by any other tax to the produce of which the same destination were given.

In addition to their wines, it is true, the profit made by the producer or importer

into Peninsula Spain - made by means of monopoly thus given to him - made at the

expence of the Ultramarian consumer. But if the dissatisfaction would be considerable

that would be produced in Ultramaria by the view of the profit thus supposed to be

given to you in Peninsula Spain given at the expence of the Ultramarians in question

and by means of a force put upon them, much greater would be their dissatisfaction at

seeing themselves thus universally pinched to no better purpose than that of

enriching a few strangers in the distant hemisphere.