THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF

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sources of government, we may learn, by the example of manyother nations, what would probably be the consequence.Such tolls no doubt are finally paid by the consumer; butthe consumer is not taxed in proportion to his expense, whenhe pays, not according to the value, but according to the bulkor weight, of what he consumes. When such duties are im-posed, not according to the bulk or weight, but according tothe supposed value of the goods, they become properly a sortof inland customs or excises, which obstruct very much themost important of all branches of commerce, the interior com-merce of the country.

In some small states duties similar to those passage dutiesare imposed upon goods carried across the territory, eitherby land or by water, from one foreign country to another.These are in some countries called transit-duties. Some ofthe little Italian states which are situated upon the Po, andthe rivers which run into it, derive some revenue from dutiesof this kind, which are paid altogether by foreigners, andwhich perhaps, are the only duties that one state can im-pose upon the subjects of another, without obstructing in anyrespect the industry or commerce of its own. The most im-portant transit-duty in the world is that levied by the king ofDenmark upon all merchant ships which pass through theSound.

Such taxes upon luxuries as the greater part of the dutiesof customs and excise, though they all fall indifferently uponevery different species of revenue, and are paid finally, orwithout any retribution, by whoever consumes the commodi-ties upon which they are imposed, yet they do not alwaysfall equally or proportionally upon the revenue of every in-dividual. As every man’s humour regulates the degree ofhis consumption, every man contributes rather according tohis humour than in proportion to his revenue; the profusecontribute more, the parsimonious less, than their proper pro-portion. During the minority of a man of great fortune, hecontributes commonly very little, by his consumption, towardsthe support of that state from whose protection he derives agreat revenue. Those who live in another country contributenothing by their consumption, towards the support of thegovernment of that country, in which is situated the sourceof their revenue. If in this latter country there shouldbe no land-tax, nor any considerable duty upon the trans-ference either of moveable or immoveable property, as is