n partly on the consumer
who is obliged to give more for the commodity taxed, and
partly on the producer, who, after deducting the tax, will
receive less. The public treasury will be benefited by
what the purchaser pays in addition, and also by the
sacrifice which the producer is obliged to make of a part
of his profits. It is the effort of gunpowder, which acts
at the same time on the bullet which it projects, and on
the gun which it causes to recoil." Vol. ii. p. 333.

[20] "Melon says, that the debts of a nation are debts due
from the right hand to the left, by which the body is not
weakened. It is true that the general wealth is not
diminished by the payment of the interest on arrears of
the debt: The dividends are a value which passes from the
hand of the contributor to the national creditor: Whether
it be the national creditor or the contributor who
accumulates or consumes it, is I agree of little
importance to the society; but the principal of the
debt--what has become of that? It exists no more. The
consumption which has followed the loan has annihilated a
capital which will never yield any further revenue. The
society is deprived not of the amount of interest, since
that passes from one hand to the other, but of the revenue
from a destroyed capital. This capital, if it had been
employed productively by him who lent it to the state,
would equally have yielded him an income, but that income
would have been derived from a real production, and would
not have been furnished from the pocket of a fellow
citizen."--_Say_, vol. ii. p. 357. This is both conceived
and expressed in the true spirit of the science.

[21] "Manufacturing industry increases its produce in
proportion to the demand, and the price falls; _but the
produce of land cannot be so increased_; and a high price
is still necessary to prevent the consumption from
exceeding the supply." _Buchanan_, vol. iv. p. 40. Is it
possible that Mr. Buchanan can seriously assert, that the
produce of the land cannot be increased, if the demand
increases?

[22] I wish the word "Profit" had been omitted. Dr. Smith
must suppose the profits of the tenants of these precious
vineyards to be above the general rate of profits. If they
were not, they would not pay the tax, unless they could
shift it either to the landlord or consumer.

[23] See note, p. 346.

[24] See note, p. 346.