Page:Karl Marx - The Poverty of Philosophy - (tr. Harry Quelch) - 1913.djvu/174

 THE METAPHYSICS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY 167

geoisie. In the hands of industrial capital, that is to say the sober and thrifty wealth which maintained, re- produced, and increased itself by the direct exploitation of labor, the impost on articles of consumption was a means of exploiting the frivolous, joyous, prodigal wealth of the grand lords who did nothing but consume. Sir James Steuart very weil explains this primitive object of the impost on articles of consumption in his “Inquiry into the Principles of Political Economy,” which he published ten years before Adam Smith.

“Under the pure monarchy,” he says, “the prince seems jealous as it were, of growing wealth, and there- fore imposes taxes upon people who are growing richer. Under the limited Government they are calculated chiefly to affect those who are growing poorer. Thus the monarch imposes a tax upon industry, where every- one is rated in proportion to the gain he is supposed to make by, his profession. The poll-tax and taille, are likewise proportioned to the supposed opulence of every- one liable to them. . . . . In limited Governments, im- positions are generally laid upon consumption.”

As to the logical succession of imposts, of the balance of commerce, of credit—in the understanding of M. Proudhon—we will merely observe that the English bourgeoisie, having, under William of Orange, attained its political constitution, created at a stroke a new system of taxation, public credit, and the system of protective duties, when it was in a position to freely develop its conditions of existence.

This glimpse will suffice to give the reader a fair idea of the lucubrations of M. Proudhoa on police and taxa- tion, the balance of commerce, communism, and popula- tion. We defy the most indulgent critic to approach these chapters seriously.