sly 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. If we will give up to them
the regulation of our tariffs, they will leave us triumphant in the
domain of literature.

It is constantly alleged in opposition to our principles, that they
are good only in theory. But, gentlemen, do you believe that
merchants' books are good in practice? It does appear to me, if there
is anything which can have a practical authority, when the object is
to prove profit and loss, that this must be commercial accounts. We
cannot suppose that all the merchants of the world, for centuries
back, should have so little understood their own affairs, as to have
kept their books in such a manner as to represent gains as losses, and
losses as gains. Truly it would be easier to believe that our
legislators are bad political economists. A merchant, one of my
friends, having had two business transactions, with very different
results, I have been curious to compare on this subject the accounts
of the counter with those of the custom-house, interpreted by our
legislators.

Mr. T dispatched from New Orleans a vessel freighted for France with
cotton valued at $200,000. Such was the amount entered at the
custom-house. The cargo, on its arrival at Havre, had paid ten per
cent. expenses, and was liable to thirty per cent. duties, which
raised its value to $280,000. It was sold at twenty per cent. profit
on its original val