EFFECT OF TAXES UPON MANUFACTURES. 271

CHAP. XXX.

ON THE EFFECT OF TAXES AND OF LEGAL RESTRIC-TIONS UPON MANUFACTURES.

(304.) As soon as a tax is put upon any article,the ingenuity of those who make, and of those whouse it, is directed to the means of evading as large apart of that tax as they can ; and this may often heaccomplished in ways that are perfectly fair andlegal. An excise duty exists at present of 3d.*per pound upon all writing-paper. The effect ofthis impost is, that much of the paper which isemployed, is made extremely thin, in order thatthe weight of a given number of sheets may be assmall as possible. Soon after the first impositionof the tax upon windows, which depended upontheir number, and not upon their size, new-builthouses began to have fewer windows and of a largersize than before. Staircases w'ere lighted by ex-tremely long windows, illuminating three or fourflights of stairs. When the tax was increased, andthe size of windows charged as single was limited,then still greater care ivas taken to have as fewwindows as possible, and internal lights became fre-quent. These internal lights in their turn becamethe subject of taxation ; but it was easy to evade

* Twenty-eight shillings per cwL for the finer, twenty-oneshillings per cwt. for the coarser papers.