An Essay on Profits [15]
to use it if he could make greater profits elsewhere?
14. Excepting when the extension of commerce enables us to obtain food at really cheaper prices.
15. If by foreign commerce,or the discovery of machinery, the commodities consumed by the labourer should become much cheaper, wages would fall; and this, as we have before observed, would raise the profits of the farmer, and therefore, all other profits.
16. This principle is most ably stated by Mr Malthus in page 42 of "An Inquiry," &c.
17. It is this latter opinion which is chiefly insisted upon by Mr Malthus in his late publication, "The grounds of An Opinion," &c.
18. As London is to be a depot for foreign corn, this store might be very great.
19. If it be true, as Mr Malthus observes, that in Ireland there are no manufactures in which capital could be profitably employed, capital would not be withdrawn from the land, and then there would be no loss of agricultural capital. Ireland would, in such case, have the same surplus corn produce, although it would be of less exchangeable value. Her revenue might be diminished; but if she would not, or could not manufacture goods, and would not cultivate the ground, she would have no revenue at all.
20. I by no means agree with Adam Smith, or with Mr Malthus, respecting the effects of taxation on the necessaries of life. The former can find no term too severe by which to characterize them. Mr Malthus is more lenient. They both think that such taxes, incalculably more than any other, tend to diminish capital and production. I do not say that they are the best of taxes, but they do not, I think, subject us to any of the disadvantages of which Adam Smith speaks in foreign trade: nor do they produce effects very different from other taxes. Adam Smith thought that such taxes fell exclusively on the landholder; Mr Malthus thinks they are divided between the landholder and consumer. It appears to me that they are paid wholly by the consumer.
21. Page 22, Grounds, &c.
22. Grounds, &c. p. 32.
14. Excepting when the extension of commerce enables us to obtain food at really cheaper prices.
15. If by foreign commerce,or the discovery of machinery, the commodities consumed by the labourer should become much cheaper, wages would fall; and this, as we have before observed, would raise the profits of the farmer, and therefore, all other profits.
16. This principle is most ably stated by Mr Malthus in page 42 of "An Inquiry," &c.
17. It is this latter opinion which is chiefly insisted upon by Mr Malthus in his late publication, "The grounds of An Opinion," &c.
18. As London is to be a depot for foreign corn, this store might be very great.
19. If it be true, as Mr Malthus observes, that in Ireland there are no manufactures in which capital could be profitably employed, capital would not be withdrawn from the land, and then there would be no loss of agricultural capital. Ireland would, in such case, have the same surplus corn produce, although it would be of less exchangeable value. Her revenue might be diminished; but if she would not, or could not manufacture goods, and would not cultivate the ground, she would have no revenue at all.
20. I by no means agree with Adam Smith, or with Mr Malthus, respecting the effects of taxation on the necessaries of life. The former can find no term too severe by which to characterize them. Mr Malthus is more lenient. They both think that such taxes, incalculably more than any other, tend to diminish capital and production. I do not say that they are the best of taxes, but they do not, I think, subject us to any of the disadvantages of which Adam Smith speaks in foreign trade: nor do they produce effects very different from other taxes. Adam Smith thought that such taxes fell exclusively on the landholder; Mr Malthus thinks they are divided between the landholder and consumer. It appears to me that they are paid wholly by the consumer.
21. Page 22, Grounds, &c.
22. Grounds, &c. p. 32.