Under the constitutional governments of Europe, the people do not indeed suffer from violent exactions, as in the Turkish empire and in Fernia; but industry and commerce are often restrained by irregular and ill-defined taxes.
To levy a tax "at the time and in the manner most likely to be convenient for the contributor to pay it " is always a wise policy on the part of the state. The time or manner of payment may often be more vexatious than the amount of the tax itself, and thus have the evil effects of high taxation, while it produces no revenue to the state. Suppose, for example, that a merchant imports goods and is required to pay a duty upon them Immediately and before he has found a market for them :—he must either advance the money himself or borrow it from others, and in either case he will be obliged to charge the purchaser of the goods with the interest ; or he must sell the goods at once, not on account of any commercial occasion for the sale, but in order to avoid prepayment of the tax. If he pays the tax and holds the goods, the consumer will have to repay not only the tax but the interest ; and if be parts with them at a loss or inconvenience, trade is injured, and the general wealth and consequent productiveness of taxation proportionately diminished. To prevent these evils the Bonding or Warehouseing system was established in this country, which affords the most liberal convenience to the merchant and a general facility to trade. Certain warehouses are appointed under the charge of officers of the customs, in which goods may bo deposited without being chargeable with duty until they are cleared for con sumption, and thus the tax is paid when the article is wanted, and when it is least inconvenient to pay it.. Similar accommodation is granted on their own premises to the manufacturers of articles liable to excise duties. At present the customs bonding-warehousea are con fined to the ports, and a few large towns.
The evils resulting from inconvenient modes of assessing and col lecting taxes have been very seriously felt in this country under the operation of the excise laws. When any manufacture is subject to excise duties, the officers of the revenue have cognisance of every part of the process, inspect and control the premises and machinery of the manufacturer, and often even prescribe the mode of conducting and the times of commencing and completing each procesa; while the observance of numberless minute regulations is enforced by severe penalties. The manufacturer is put to great inconvenience and
expense, and his ingenuity and resources are constantly interfered with in such a manner as to impede inventions and improvements, and to diminish lei. profits. A London distiller stated to the Commissioners of Excise Inquiry, that assuming that the duties on spirits distilled by him should be fully secured to the revenue, " it would be well worth his while to pay 30001. a-year for the privilege of exemption from excise interference." (' Digest of Reports of Commissioners of Excise Inquiry,' p. 15.) Any injury done to trade is injurious to the state by diminishing the national wealth and the employment of labour. It has the same effect also upon the revenue as excessive taxation. The high price of the article limits the consumption and consequently the revenue arising from it. The injurious effects of the excise restrictions "must be felt in an accumulated degree by the public who are the consumers, against whom the tax operates by the addition made to the price of the commodity, not only by its direct amount, but by the necessity of compensating the mauufacturer for his advance of capital in defraying it, and also by the increased cost of production." (' Ibid.,' p. 15.) In the case of a heavy tax, which also dimioishes consumption, the state, at least, derives some benefit; but in the case of onerous restrictions and impediments to trade caused by the mode of collecting a tax, the state gain* nothing whatever, and the manufacturer and the consumer are seriously injured, without an equivalent to any party. If tho consumer must suffer, it should, at least, be for the benefit of the revenue, for then his contributions may be diminished in some other direction. During the last few years excise duties have been removed entirely from several manufactures, and in the instance of bricks and glare, especially in the latter, the improvements in the manufacture, and the remarkable diminution of price, have been of a most ,striking character, and produced the most beneficial effects,.