All silk goods are perhaps in part luxuries to the majority of those who consume them.They are also, however, in a very great degree, and to all classes, utilities.There is a real beauty and durability in such fabrics, probably in many cases sufficient to warrant the higher price paid for them.A general tax, therefore, upon silks, though it would in part be a tax on luxuries, and, in so far, occasion no diminution of the revenues of any one, would also in part be a tax upon utilities, abstracting a real amount from the minds of individuals.The same things will hold true concerning a great number of commodities.Pure vanity, and real enjoyment, bare each a place, as we have seen, in the general expenditure of almost every person.
But though this is true of taxes levied generally on any class of commodities, it yet not unfrequently happens, that taxes on commodities of the same class may be so ordered as to fall nearly, or altogether, on luxuries.
It may be, though a whole class of commodities have, under the appearance of luxury they exhibit, a considerable substratum of real utility, that yet individuals of the class, not differing from others in the quantum of utility they possess, may have some peculiarities serving to afford a hold to vanity, and to enable that passion to raise their value very high, by making them pass as marks of the superiority of one man over another.
As these, therefore, differ from other commodities of the sort, merely in the amount of luxury embodied in them, a tax on them may be considered as altogether a tax on luxuries, giving a revenue to the legislator, and taking nothing from the society.
Alcoholic liquors, considered as a class, are probably, in a great degree, luxuries.They may in part be really useful, but certainly, speaking in the general, their consumption is not measured by the utility resulting from it.Some of them, however, agreeing with each other in the amount of utility they may possess, differ yet largely in the quantum of luxury embodied in them.Tires it is, I apprehend, very difficult to say whether rum, brandy, whisky, or gin, considering each with regard to its intrinsic qualities, is the preferable liquor.It seems probable that they are nearly alike in most respects, save their being more or less luxuries.In Great Britain rum is, I believe, at least double the price of whisky, and brandy still higher, the consumption, therefore, of the dearer article instead of the cheaper, must arise nearly altogether from vanity.In Canada, again, the price at which Scotch whisky is sold, is double the price of rum, and considerably above the price of brandy.The excess of its price above these other liquors must, therefore, be considered a luxury.(161) The chief part of the high price in England of rum and brandy, is made up of the duty paid to the government.In this case, therefore, the legislator would seem to derive a revenue from mere luxuries.Were such duties withdrawn, and were not the measure to lead to an increased and extravagant consumption of alcoholic liquors in general, it would have the effect of changing the sort of liquors consumed.Rum and brandy being as cheap as whisky, would come, with many people, to occupy the place of it, they would no longer afford a peculiar gratification to vanity, and that passion would fly off to some other article, fitted for its purpose, in all probability, not by the operations of the legislator, but by the real expenditure of labor or some equivalent to it.The society, considered as a body, would lose the advantages of the revenue before at the command of the legislator, and, considered as individuals, they would gain nothing.Certain classes among them would merely change the form of some of the characters, by which they marked to others their relative means and stations.
It would appear, then, that the powers of the legislator, when prudently directed in the taxation of luxuries, may be so exercised as to raise a considerable revenue, without trenching at all on the incomes of individuals.
It is to be observed, that his proceedings in this way have a greater chance of success, when he levies duties on foreign, than on domestic commodities.
Almost all commodities of home manufacture form large classes, running gradually into one another, and so not easily discriminated, or affording any very striking characteristics to serve the purposes of vanity.If we examine, for instance, the manufactures in Britain of cloths, or of malt liquors, we shall find in them all a great number of commodities differing very little from each other.If a heavy duty be then imposed on any of them, there is a considerable chance.of its consumption greatly diminishing or ceasing altogether.Were porter taxed more highly than other malt liquors, there are so many sorts of ales which very nearly resemble it, or might be made to do so, that instead of being converted by the tax into an especial luxury, it is probable the consumption of porter would nearly cease.The imposition of a high duty on any particular sort of foreign wine, has not so great a tendency to diminish its consumption; people would still drink claret, however highly it were taxed, because it has qualities sufficiently marked to distinguish it from other wines, and to make, therefore, its consumption capable of denoting a degree of present opulence, proportioned to the price it costs.
