Currency fallacies refuted, and paper money ... - University Library

PAPER MONEY VINDICATED. 31property in the funds, are directly taken fromthe parties, and need not add to prices. If thelandowner says, * I pay all the burthens of thestate, and for some of them, at least, I ought tobe reimbursed : it is but fair, therefore, that Ishould be allowed to demand more reiit for myland than before this tax was levied :' theanswer would be— 'If you increase the rent ofyour land, the farmer must have an increasedprice for his corn, — and the manufacturer whoconsumes it, paying that advanced price, musthave an increased price for his productions.If he gets this by our interdict of foreign goods,except under payment of a certain duty, whichisthe only way in which he can get it and keepit, you must pay a higher price for every thingyou buy, and the outgoings would, in that case,greatly exceed the additional sum you receivefrom your increased rent. If we do not protecthim from foreign competition, he cannotproduce his goods with so much advantage tohimself here as abroad, and he will soon transporthis manufacture to countries where cornis cheaper, by which means you will lose farmore in the end than the tax for which youare contending.' — Such taxes then, as these,which do not require or necessarily lead to anadvance in the price of commodities^ may belevied without causing a difference to the individualsof a country in the price paid by them,and by those of other countries. But this is