OUR PRODUCTIONS ARE OVERLOADED WITH INTERNAL TAXES--
This is but a new wording of the Sophism before noticed. The
demand made is, that the foreign article should be taxed, in order to
neutralize the effects of the internal tax, which weighs down domestic
produce. It is still then but the question of equalizing the
facilities of production. We have but to say that the tax is an
artificial obstacle, which has exactly the same effect as a natural
obstacle, i.e. the increasing of the price. If this increase is so
great that there is more loss in producing the article in question at
home than in attracting it from foreign parts by the production of an
equivalent value of something else--_laissez faire_. Individual
interest will soon learn to choose the lesser of two evils. I might
refer the reader to the preceding demonstration for an answer to this
Sophism; but it is one which recurs so often, that it deserves a
special discussion.
I have said more than once, that I am opposing only the theory of the
protectionists, with the hope of discovering the source of their
errors.
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