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Show .50Si ON THE IMMEDIATE CAUSES [CH, VJI. nery than 'vas ever before kno\vn, we might have been in a state to have felt the greatest relief at the cessation of hostilities. When !-1 urne and Adan1 Smith prophesied that a little increase of national debt beyond the then amount of it, would probably occasion bankruptcy; the main cause of their error was the very natural one, of not being able to see the vast increase of productive power to which the nation \Vould subsequently attain. An expenditure, 'vhich would have absolutely crushed the country in 1770, might be little n1ore than what 'vas necessary to call forth its prodigious powers of production in 1816. But just in proportion to this power of production, and to the facility with \vhich a vast consumption could be supplied, consistently 'vith a rapid accumulation of capital, would be the distress felt by capitalists and labourers upon any great and sudden din1inution of expenditure. On this account, there is reason to doubt the policy of raising the supplies of a long and expensive war \Vithin the year, a policy which has been recotnn1ended by very able 'vriters. · If the country were poor, such a systen1 of taxation might completely keep do\vn its efforts. It might every year positively diminish its capital, and render it every year more ruinous to furnish the same supplies; till the country would be oblige.d to suhn1it to its enemies from the absolute inabi· lity of continuing to oppose them with ·effect. On the other hand, if the country '\\rere rich, and had great po\vers of production, which were likely SEC. ~' .J OF ·'1'111:: PHOGH.ESS 01• 'VFALTU. 503 to be still further called f~·nth by the stitnul us of a o-reat consun1ption, it n1ight be able to pay the b . .. . heavy taxes itnposed upon It, out ot Its revenue, and yet find the n1eans of adequate accumulation; but if this process were to last for any titne, and the habits of the people were accon1n1odatecl to this scale of public and private expenditure, it is scarcely possible to doubt that, at the end of the ,var, \Vhen so large a n1ass of taxes would at once be restored to the payers of thetn, the just balance of produce and consun1ption 'vould be cotnpletely destroyed, and a period \Vould ensue, longer or shorter; according to circutnstances, in "vhich a very great stagnation \vould be felt in every branch ' of prod nctive industry, attended b~ its us_ual concotnitant o·eneral distress. rfhe evil occasioned by b imposing a ta~ is very rarely cotnpensatcd_ by ~he takino· it off. '\tVe should constantly keep 111 111111d that ~he tendencv to expenditure in individuals has most fonnidable antagonists in the love of indolence and in the desire of saving, in order to better ~heir condition and provide for a family; and that all theories founded upon the assumption that mankind ·always produce and consume as 1nuch as they have the power to produce and consun1e, are founded upon a ~rant of knowledge_ of _tl:e human character and of the n1otives by "vhtch It IS usually influenced. It will be said, perhaps, that as it is acknowled~ed that the capital of this country compa~·ed w1th the population has been diminished stnce the KK4 |
