Page:Ferdinand Lassalle - The Working Man's Programme - tr. Edward Peters (1884).djvu/42

 hand, are those which are imposed on needs of some kind, for instance on salt, corn, beer, meat, fuel, or on the need of the protection provided by law, on the cost of litigation, stamps, &c. These are in most instances paid by the individual in the price of the article, without his knowing or observing that he is paying any tax when he pays for it, or that it is the tax which enhances the price he pays for the article.

Now you are aware, gentlemen, that one man who is twenty, fifty, or a hundred times as rich as another, by no means requires on that account, twenty, fifty, or a hundred times as much salt, bread or meat, nor drinks fifty or a hundred times as much beer or wine, nor requires fifty or a hundred times as much warmth, and therefore fuel, as a workman or poor citizen.

Hence it follows that all indirect taxes, instead of being adapted to individuals according to the proportion of their capital and income, are paid, in far the greater part, by the poorest and most destitute classes of the nation. It is true that the Bourgeoisie did not actually invent indirect taxation; it existed before. But the Bourgeoisie were the first to develop it in an unprecedented degree into a system, and laid upon it almost the whole burden of supplying the necessities of the State.

In order to show you this, I will glance by way of example at the revenue of Prussia for the year 1855.

The total amount received by the State in that year was in round numbers 108,930,000 thalers. From this we have to deduct 11,967,000 thalers the proceeds of the domains and forests, that is to say, income derived