Marquis de Casaux

“ If I mistake not, I have proved that it is indifferent to agriculture and industry, whether the prices rise or fall, provided it be always in a due and reciprocal proportion. Nor is it less indifferent, whether the increase proceeds from taxes, from monopoly, or from accession of wealth, and whether the decrease be brought about by the extirpation of monopoly, or by the triumph of smuggling; so long as the prices balance each other, no one can be injured however loud people may be in their clamours; it is impossible to shut one’s eyes against the evidence of such a point. ”

“ The system of taxation, which may be called general, is composed of the four different kinds of taxes which I have just mentioned:—First, some kind of poll-tax, under that or any other name;—secondly, a land-tax;—thirdly, an impost on the consumption of the rich, or luxury;—and fourthly, in fine, the freedom taken with the consumption of the poor, or general consumption; [224] for the sun of reason forces its way through the darkness of prejudices; these only serve to retard the progress of nature wherever light first began to shine. ”

“ For, thank Heaven, there is no necessity, now, for the English to be more hot-headed than any other nation in Europe. It is generally acknowledged among themselves, with true English sang-froid, that, on the part of those champions of patriotism, who, according to the interest of the day, charge each other by turns with selling the people, and betraying the sacred constitution, all terminates now in the most exact change of admirable sarcasms, and exquisite railleries. ”

“ But will you attempt to persuade, that it is advantageous to the State, under any aspect, to compel a man who calls himself free, to wear manufactured buttons, when his inclination would lead him to have them made of remnants of stuff? Will you attempt to persuade, that it is advantageous to the State, to make him pay a penalty of 3 or 4 pounds, besides cost, if he is surprised flagrante delicto? Will you attempt to persuade, that it is advantageous to the State, to encourage the infamous trade of informing, by a reward in favour of an informer, against a man guilty of such a crime? ”

“ I shall pass over in silence the obstacles which that famous Act daily opposes to regulations as well adapted to the present state of things, as those it contains were to the circumstances that gave it birth; but, to the intoxication produced by its success, I shall be bold enough to impute one of the most mistaken notions on the true aim of national commerce: it is a very fatal error, to imagine that money ought to be the object of those operations of which it is only the means. ”

“ Is it not perceivable, that all the four interests united, as well as each of them separately, require that no more be imported in bullion or money than the quantity necessary to facilitate those exchanges? Is not a surplus of money not only useless, but even detrimental, in diminishing our enjoyments, our possible profits, and that consumption which produces the public revenue? ”

“ And this is, methinks, the most dreaded effect arising from taxes. O ye, whose covetousness knows no limits but the bounds of the earth! do ye pretend to be the sole inhabitants thereof? Can ye draw off the capitalists of a country, without completing its ruin? Can ye effect its ruin, without losing both that portion which the produce of your soil secures to you in the produce of that nation’s industry, and the share which the produce of your industry has secured for you in those of her soil? ”

“ Does such an event, almost infallibly the result of a long interruption of correspondence, prove any thing more than the necessity of a balance between production and consumption, the advantage of knowing as soon as possible the difference from the one to the other, the inconvenience of a trade, in which we lose sight of our capital for whole years together, and the advantage of a trade which would 5 or 6 months after return to the hands of the capitalist the stock he had laid out? ”

“ But how many national prejudices, how many maxims sacred to each nation, how many absurd regulations, springing from those very maxims and prejudices, is she not obliged to modify, as it were, underhand, in their effects! What a number of smugglers does that good mother employ, for the purpose of bringing all things nearer to that equilibrium, from which many are still persuaded it is so very material to deviate! ”

“ No one takes the trouble of arguing long on causes, when the effect is instantaneously and powerfully felt: Not Europe alone, but the United States of America, are stript of their money by England; England therefore wants not any longer to import foreign goods, or when she advances the price of her own merchandise, she refuses paying dearer for that of other nations. The other nations do not hesitate—English goods are instantly prohibited.
The following principles are such as, I think, can never mislead.
There is not a single nation that cannot boast some palpable advantage over another ”

“ What seems to be in France no more than a fortunate prejudice, is every where an irrefragable truth: in every country the strength, power, and riches of the Prince, are but the sum of the force, power, riches, energy, honour and susceptibility, which actually exist in the mass of his subjects.—But if the Sovereign be the most powerful man in his kingdom, only because all its strength centers in him ”

“ This, in fact, should not be considered as a real increase of wealth, which it is at all times easy to appreciate, but as a proof that there exists, in the nation, an inestimable number of men, who are capable, in the space of ninety years, to effect a saving of 180,000,000, which government will have it in its power, within the same space of time, to appropriate to the exigencies of war, if potentates should continue in a warlike humour; or to lay out in objects of industry and cultivation, supposing an improvement of the revenue should be preferred to a state of warfare. ”

“ Every thing, at this moment, is in that happy state, which gives time to reflect upon what is past, to see what is present, to look forwards to what is to come, and to consider an ensemble, the very idea of which could not be admitted during former periods. A few clouds, dispersed here and there, do not spoil the beauty of the horizon; no body can now, for any length of time, think it his interest to ruin and destroy; and every body is concerned not to suffer any thing to be destroyed. ”

“ If it can be concluded from the ensemble, that all the evils brought about by a bad or ill-fated administration, are naturally, and without expence, compensated under a wise ministry, and that the most barbarous and most extravagant of them all could have no other means of ruining the nation than by destroying the people; then, made easy on the effects of the national debt, we shall have courage enough to acknowledge, that it is as sacred in the hands of those, who, having furnished the value, are in possession of the vouchers, as the crown on the head of the monarch ”

“ What is the money-proprietor to do, not having it in his power to raise the price of his money as the landed proprietor can do that of his wheat, but who, on the contrary, is invariably limited to the same nominal revenue, whilst the tax of the other 5 millions, which the humanity of the taxator had levelled at him, has occasioned a rise of 25 per cent. in the nominal value of those articles of luxury in which he indulged himself?—He will, he must leave them in the hands of industry, and confine himself to such objects as are not taxed ”

“ No country in the world can be guarded against the injustice inseparable from the two first parts of the system of a compound-taxation, whatever may be in that respect the wisdom of the legislature, and its tenderness in the manner of collecting the impost; no country can be free from that other kind of injustice which results from the general prejudice in favour of the tax on luxury, which constitutes the third part of the system under examination; but the ensemble—the whole together, does not produce every where the same effects on the prices. ”

“ How fill up the real chasm of capitals, which may, in an instant, suspend a hundred manufactories in a kingdom, and, by that suspension, ruin, starve, the trader, the merchant, the manufacturer, the mechanic, all, except the farmer, whether proprietor or tenant, who, by the counter-blow, could not die of hunger, but in real misery on his stacks of wheat, which he would no longer attempt to reproduce.
That man is ignorant of his own value, who, pen in hand, weighs, calculates, measures time, distances, expenditure, obstacles, facilities, occurrences ”

“ Observe, above all, that England, who pretends to have the largest balance in money, is the very nation who, with respect to the extensiveness of her commerce and the mass of her industry, keeps the least part of that balance at home, and constantly preserves as little of it, as if she had been no less convinced than I am myself, of the futility of any other balance in bullion, but that which is necessary for the five articles above mentioned. ”

“ What is most miraculous (and indeed consolatory for those who are obliged to think of their elevation, before they dream of a bankruptcy, or even of their decline) is, that whilst France and England have received annually, the one 4, the other 3 millions sterling, that is to say, one sixth more than America has to share amongst all the European nations, the other countries in Europe have nevertheless increased their mass of money, by all that was necessary to keep up their luxury, and the circulation of a revenue which has almost doubled in the course of a century. ”

“ How is it that France has constantly retrieved her errors and her misfortunes? How comes it that England has not yet sunk under the burden of her taxes? The French exciseman says: It is because the more the people are loaded, the better they walk; and very sensible [248] men in England used to say, “Reason and experience seem to prove that taxes stimulate industry, and that the poor, to live as well as before, perform more work without demanding more for their labour.” ”

“ Then the lender shares in their utility and comfort. Has the employing of the capital been productive neither of glory, nor public establishments? In a word, is the State reduced to its primary and bare existence? The capital lent will not, at least, be lost to the lender, if administration think fit to observe how little it costs to be just; and the lender, on his part, will reflect, that he should not have been a greater gainer, had he buried his treasure during the time of national distress and that, had he lent it to individuals, he might have lost it entirely. ”

“ Now if, in spite of the taxes, a country abounds with money, how should it not be so, supposing no duties had been laid?—How can the abolition of the taxes prevent the introduction of cash?—How will it come to pass, that the mass of specie being increased, the prices shall not be raised?—And if all of them augment, in a fair proportion, who will gain by it, who will suffer? ”

“ The tax laid on the produce of industry would double the 32 millions: this is just; nor can it be doubted; for there is not a manufacturer, whose goods or produce have just been taxed, but will acknowledge this truth. Besides, the British Parliament avows it. What remains now, is to convince the landed proprietors, that by doubling also their 32 millions revenue, they injure no one whatever. It is needless to prove, that if they act otherwise, if they be only passive when the manufacturers are so justly active, they must be reduced to plough those lands that acknowledge them for their lords. ”

“ Never will industry lay out a shilling upon the land if she can employ it in any other enterprise.
But, would the inland trade, without which agriculture cannot subsist, flourish, if foreign commerce should not be encouraged in a particular manner? And were any circumstances whatever, combined together so as to occasion such an alteration in the price of necessaries, as would deprive industry of the proper means to support abroad a competition which cannot possibly subsist but by an equality of means ”

“ If the colonies, now independent, will henceforth call in all the other nations of Europe to a share in the advantage of crediting them in the same manner, can it be supposed that England will not find in Europe, some other nation willing to receive that part of the English credit, which the independent colonies shall no longer think proper to make use of? In this case, can any thing more be required, on the part of England, than to manufacture in less quantity such goods as suit only the inhabitants of America, and somewhat more of those that may suit the different nations of Europe ”