Page:On the economy of machinery and manufactures - Babbage - 1846.djvu/243

Rh or four are wanted for the sake of some experiment. Perhaps if all numbers above fifty were charged as two hundred and fifty, and all below as for half two hundred and fifty, both parties would derive an advantage.

(260.) The effect of the excise duty is to render the paper thin, in order that it may weigh little; but this is counteracted by the desire of the author to make his book look as thick as possible, in order that he may charge the public as much as he decently can; and so on that ground alone the duty is of no importance. There is, however, another effect of this duty, which both the public and the author feel; for they pay, not merely the duty which is charged, but also the profit on that duty, which the paper-maker requires for the use of additional capital; and also the profit to the publisher and bookseller on the increased price of the volume.

(261.) The estimated charge for advertisements is, in the present case, about the usual allowance for such a volume; and, as it is considered that advertisements in newspapers are the most effectual, where the smallest pays a duty of 3s. 6d., nearly one half of the charge of advertising is a tax.

(262.) It appears then, that, to an expenditure of 224l. necessary to produce the present volume, 42l. are added in the shape of a direct tax. Whether the profits arising from such a mode of manufacturing will justify such a rate of taxation, can only be estimated when the returns from the volume are considered, a subject that will be discussed in a subsequent chapter. It is at present sufficient