Page:Thoughts on the causes and consequences of the present high price of provisions.djvu/12

[ 4 ] ably increase the prices of them, and that in a much greater proportion than is usually understood: for a duty laid on any commodity does not only add the value of that duty to the price of that commodity, but the dealer in it must advance the price double or treble times that sum; for he must not only repay himself the original tax, but must have compensation for his losses in trade by bad debts, and loss of interest by his increased capital. Besides this, every new tax does not only affect the price of the commodity on which it is laid, but that of all others, whether taxed or not, and with which, at first sight, it seems to have no manner of connection. Thus, for instance, a tax on candles must raise the price of a coat, or a pair of breeches; because, out of these, all the taxes on the candles of the wool-comber, weaver, and the tailor, must be paid: A duty upon ale must raise the price of shoes; because from them all the taxes upon ale drank by the tanner,