Page:Reflections on the Formation and the Distribution of Riches by Anne Turgot.djvu/137

110 retrenchment can, strictly speaking, be made, is nevertheless a necessary element in the usual subsistence of the workmen and their families. Molière's miser says that when dinner is laid for five, a sixth can always make a meal; but by pushing this reasoning a little further one would quickly fall into absurdity. I add that the diminution of consumption has another effect upon the revenue of the proprietor which is very serious,—through the diminution of the value of commodities and of the products of his land.

I do not enter into the details of the objection drawn from foreign trade, which I cannot regard as a very important matter in any nation, save in so far as it contributes to augment the revenue from lands; and which, moreover, you cannot tax without causing it to diminish. But the time fails me, and I am forced to conclude, although I should have a good deal to say as to the inconveniences caused to the consumers by a tax whereof the very collection involves a perpetual assault on the liberty of the citizens: they have to be searched in custom-houses, their houses have to be entered for aides and excises; not to mention the horrors of smuggling, and of the sacrifice of human life to the pecuniary interest of the treasury,—a fine sermon legislation preaches to highwaymen!

...I have drawn up some questions for the two Chinese I have mentioned to you; and to enable them to see their object and meaning, I have prefaced them by a sketchy