THE WEALTH OF NATIONS.

817

perhaps a necessary, it must be acknowledged, is a very na-tural effect of such taxes.

Such stamp-duties as those in England upon cards anddice, upon newspapers and periodical pamphlets, &c. areproperly taxes upon consumption; the final payment fallsupon the persons who use or consume such commodities.Such stamp-duties as those upon licences to retail ale, wine,and spirituous liquors, though intended, perhaps, to fall uponthe profits of the retailers, are likewise finally paid by theconsumers of those liquors. Such taxes, though called bythe same name, and levied by the same officers and in thesame manner with the stamp-duties above-mentioned uponthe transference of property, arc however of a quite differentnature, and fall upon quite different funds.

ARTICLE III.

Taxes upon the Wages of Labour.

The wages of the inferior classes of workmen, 1 have en-deavoured to shew in the first book, are everywhere neces-sarily regulated by two different circumstances; the demandfor labour and the ordinary or average price of provisions.The demand for labour, according as it happens to be eitherincreasing, stationary, or declining; or to require an increas-ing, stationary, or declining population, regulates the sub-sistence of the labourer, and determines in what degree itshall be either liberal, moderate, or scanty. The ordinary oraverage price of provisions determines the quantity of moneywhich must be paid to the workman in order to enable him,one year with another, to purchase this liberal, moderate, orscanty subsistence. While the demand for labour and theprice of provisions, therefore, remain the same, a direct taxupon the wages of labour can have no other effect than toraise them somewhat higher than the tax. Let us suppose,for example, that in a particular place the demand for labourand the price of provisions were such, as to render ten shil-lings a week the ordinary wages of labour; and that a tax ofone-fifth, or four shillings in the pound, was imposed uponwages. If the demand for labour and price of provisions re-mained the same, it would still be necessary that the labourershould in that place earn such a subsistence as could bebought only for ten shillings a week, or that after paying thetax he should have ten shillings a week free wages. But in