alf-poor, who number millions and tens of millions. Hence,
in the merchandise by the sale of which it is to profit, it takes care
to include staple articles which everybody needs, for example, salt,
sugar, tobacco and beverages in universal and popular use. This
accomplished, let us follow out the consequences, and look in at the
shops over the whole surface of the territory, in the towns or in the
villages, where these articles are disposed of. Daily and all day long,
consumers abound; their large coppers and small change constantly rattle
on the counter; and out of every large copper and every small piece of
silver the national treasury gets so many centimes: that is its share,
and it is very sure of it, for it is already in hand, having received
it in advance. At the end of the year, these countless centimes fill
its cash-box with millions, as many and more millions than it gathers
through direct taxation.

And this second crop causes less trouble than the first one for the
taxpayer who is subject to it has less trouble and like-wise the State
which collects it.--In the first place, the tax-payer suffers less. In
relation to the exchequer, he is no longer a mere debtor, obliged to pay
over a particular sum at a particular date; his payments are optional;
neither the date nor the sum are fixed; he pays on buying and in
proportion to what he buys, that is to say, when he pleases and as
little as he wants. He is free to choose his time, to wait until his
purse is not so empty; there is nothing to hinder him from thinking
before he enters the shop, from counting his coppers and small change,
from giving the preference to more urgent expenditure, from reducing his
consumption. If he is not a frequenter of the cabaret, his quota, in
the hundreds of millions of francs obtained from beverages, is almost
nothing; if he does not smoke or snuff, his quota, in the hundreds of
millions derived from the tax on tobacco, is nothing at all; because he
is economical, prudent, a good provider for his family and capable of
self-sacrifice for those belonging to him, he escapes the shearing of
the exchequer. Moreover, when he does come under the scissors, these
hardly graze his skin; so long as tariff regulations and monopolies levy
nothing on articles which are physically indispensable to him, as on
bread in France, indirect taxation does not touch his flesh. In general,
fiscal or protective duties, especially those which increase the pri