Among the metaphors which conceal an injurious theory, none is more
common than that embodied in the words _tribute, tributary_.
These words are so much used that they have become synonymous with the
words _purchase, purchaser_, and one is used indifferently for the
other.
Yet a _tribute_ or _tax_ differs as much from _purchase_ as a theft
from an exchange, and we should like quite as well to hear it said,
"Dick Turpin has broken open my safe, and has _purchased_ out of it a
thousand dollars," as we do to have it remarked by our sage
representatives, "We have paid to England the _tribute_ for a thousand
gross of knives which she has sold to us."
For the reason why Turpin's act is not a _purchase_ is, that he has
not paid into my safe, with my consent, value equivalent to what he
has taken from it, and the reason why the payment of five hundred
thousand dollars, which we have made to England, is not a _tribute_,
is simply because she has not received them gratuitously, but in
exchange for the delivery to us of a thousand gross of knives, which
we ourselves have judged worth five hundred thousand dollars.
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