Page:Reflections on the Formation and the Distribution of Riches by Anne Turgot.djvu/131

104 involved are not clearly enough proved, for them to attribute the evil they suffer to its true cause. I am always sorry not to find myself in accord with you. But I rely upon your tolerance....

...I am tempted to say a word on the political question which we have so often raised, as to the method of establishing taxes, and as to whether it is better to place them upon landed proprietors or upon consumption. You recognize that, as the public revenue is employed for the defence of the entire nation, it is more equitable to levy them upon everybody; but you say that this is impracticable, the taxes will ultimately fall upon the land, and it would be better to lay them there in the first instance. You suppose, then, that the labourers always raise the price of their labour in proportion to the taxes; but this is contrary to experience. Manual labour is dearer in the canton of Neufchâtel, and in other parts of Switzerland, where there are no taxes, than in the neighbouring provinces of France where there are a good many. There are scarcely any taxes in the English colonies; and yet labour is three times as dear there as in any country of Europe. There are heavy taxes upon consumption in Holland, and the Republic does not possess lands upon which these taxes can ultimately fall.

The price of labour will always depend on the quantity of offers of labour and the quantity of the demand, and not