THE WEALTH OF NATIONS.

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cliaser drunk much or drunk little, his tax would be the same.Fourthly, if a workman were to pay all at once, by yearly,half-yearly, or quarterly payments, a tax equal to what heat present pays, with little or no inconveniency, upon all thedifferent pots and pints of porter which he drinks in any suchperiod of time, the sum might frequently distress him verymuch. This mode of taxation, therefore, it seems evident,could never, without the most grievous oppression, produce arevenue nearly equal to what is derived from the present modewithout any oppression. In several countries, however, com-modities of an immediate or very speedy consumption aretaxed in this manner. In Holland, people pay so much ahead for a licence to drink tea. 1 have already mentioneda tax upon bread, which, so far as it is consumed in farm-houses and country villages, is there levied in the samemanner.

The duties of excise are imposed chiefly upon goods ofhome produce destined for home consumption. They areimposed only upon a few sorts of goods of the most generaluse. There can never be any doubt either concerning thegoods which are subject to those duties, or concerning theparticular duty which each species of goods are subject to.They fall almost altogether upon what 1 call luxuries, ex-cepting always the four duties above-mentioned, upon salt,soap, leather, candles, and, perhaps, that upon green glass.

The duties of customs are much more ancient than thoseof excise. They seem to have been called customs, as de-noting customary payments which had been in use from timeimmemorial. They appear to have been originally consider-ed as taxes upon the profits of merchants. During the bar-barous times of feudal anarchy, merchants, like all the otherinhabitants of burghs, were considered as little better thanemancipated bondmen, whose persons were despised, andwhose gains were envied. The great nobility, who had con-sented that the king should tallage the profits of their owntenants, were not unwilling that lie should tallage likewisethose oi an order of men whom it was much less their in-terest to protect. In those ignorant times, it was not under-stood, that the profits of merchants are a subject not taxabledirectly; or that the final payment of all such taxes must fall,with a considerable overcharge, upon the consumers.

The gains of alien merchants were looked upon more un-favourably than those of English merchants. It was natural,.