before of each other's
goods, and therefore they would pay nothing towards the tax. If the
clothier paid more for his hats and shoes, he would receive more for his
cloth, and if the hatter paid more for his cloth and shoes, he would
receive more for his hats. All manufactured commodities then would be
bought by them with as much advantage as before, and inasmuch as corn
would not be raised in price whilst they had an additional sum to lay
out upon its purchase, they would be benefited, and not injured by such
a tax.

If then neither the labourers nor the manufacturers would contribute
towards such a tax; if the farmers would be also recompensed by a fall
of rent, landlords alone must not only bear its whole weight, but they
must also contribute to the increased gains of the manufacturers. To do
this, however, they should consume all the manufactured commodities in
the country, for the additional price charged on the whole mass is
little more than the tax originally imposed on the labourers in
manufactures.

Now it will not be disputed that the clothier, the hatter, and all other
manufacturers, are consumers of each other's goods; it will not be
disputed that labourers of all descriptions consume soap, cloth, shoes,
candles, and various other commodities: it is therefore impossible that
the whole weight of these taxes should fall on landlords only.

But if the labourers pay no part of the tax, and yet manufactured
commodities rise in price, wages must rise, not only to compensate them
for the tax, but for the increased price of manufactured necessaries,
which, as far as it affects agricultural labour, will be a new cause for
the fall of rent; and, as far as it affects manufacturing labour, for a
further rise in the price of goods. This rise in the price of goods will
again operate on wages, and the action and re-action, first of wages on
goods, and then of goods on wages, will be extended without any
assignable limits. The arguments by which this theory is supported, lead
to such absurd conclusions that it may at once be seen that the
principle is wholly indefensible.

All the effects which are produced on the profits of stock and the wages
of labour, by a rise of rent and a rise of necessaries, in the natural
progress of society, and increasing difficulty of production, will be
produced by a rise of wages in consequence of taxation; and therefore
the enjoyments of the labourer, as well as those of his employers, wi