824

'1'IIK NATURE AND CAUSES OE

example, in Great Britain , and wine, even in the wine coun-tries, I call luxuries. A man of any rank may, without anyreproach, abstain totally from tasting 1 such liquors. Naturedoes not render them necessary for the support of life; andcustom nowhere renders it indecent to live without tliem.

As the wages of labour are everywhere regulated, partlyby the demand for it, and partly by the average price of thenecessary articles of subsistence; whatever raises this averageprice must necessarily raise those wages, so that the labourermay still be able to purchase that quantity of those neces-sary articles which the state of the demand for labour, whe-ther increasing, stationary, or declining, requires that heshould have.* A tax upon those articles necessarily raisestheir price somewhat higher than the amount of the tax, be-cause the dealer, who advances the tax, must necessarily getit back with a profit. Such a tax must, therefore, occasiona rise in the wages of labour proportionable to this rise ofprice.

It is thus that a tax upon the necessaries of life operatesexactly in the same maimer as a direct tax upon the wagesof labour. The labourer, though he may pay it out of hishand, cannot, for any considerable time at least, be pro-perly said even to advance it, It must always in the long-run be advanced to him by his immediate employer in theadvanced rate of his wages. His employer, if lie is a manu-facturer, will charge upon the price of his goods this rise ofwages, together with a profit; so that the final payment ofthe tax, together with this over-charge, will fall upon theconsumer. If his employer is a farmer, the final payment,together with a like over-charge, will fall upon the rent ofthe landlord.

It is otherwise with taxes upon what I call luxuries ; evenupon those of the poor. The rise in the price of the taxedcommodities, will not necessarily occasion any rise in thewages of labour. A tax upon tobacco, for example, thougha luxury of the poor as well as of the rich, will not raisewages. Though it is taxed in England at three times, andin France at fifteen times its original price, those high dutiesseem to have no effect upon t.he wages of labour. The samething may be said of the taxes upon tea and sugar ; whichin England and Holland have become luxuries of the lowestranks of people ; and of those upon chocolate, which in

• See Book I. Chap 8.