But I go much further, and maintain that the more oppressive our taxes
are, the more anxiously ought we to open our ports and frontiers to
foreign nations, less burdened than ourselves. And why? _In order that
we may_ SHARE WITH THEM, _as much as possible, the burden
which we bear._ Is it not an incontestable maxim in political economy,
that taxes must, in the end, fall upon the consumer? _The greater then
our commerce, the greater the portion which will be reimbursed to us,
of taxes incorporated in the produce which we will have sold to
foreign consumers; whilst we on our part will have made to them only a
lesser reimbursement, because (according to our hypothesis) their
produce is less taxed than ours._
CHAPTER VI.
BALANCE OF TRADE.
Our adversaries have adopted a system of tactics, which
embarrasses us not a little. Do we prove our doctrine? They admit the
truth of it in the most respectful manner. Do we attack their
principles? They abandon them with the best possible grace. They only
ask that our doctrine, which they acknowledge to be true, should be
confined to books; and that their principles, which they allow to be
false, should be established in practice.
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