The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-08-10 00:00:00

our int

Let .me explain the sense in which I use these
I define value to be condensed labour. Price I
consider to be the offspring of indirect taxation, and of
every other act or government or society which adds to
the cost of production without adding to the value of the
product. (Applause.) Hence, it follows that in a coun-
try wholly untaxed, or in one which raises its revenue by
a tax directly and exclusively riding over realised and
capitalised property, the producer can sell his goods for

their intrinsic value, that is to say, for the mere labour
they condense (cheers) ; but in countries which raise a
revenue by the indirect machinery of customs and excise,
which again raise to the consumer the necessaries of life,
by placing fiscal burdens on all articles of consumption,
it is impossible that goods can be sold for their intrin-
sic value unless we perpetrate the cruel injustice of
compelling the unpropertied classes to sustain all the bur-
dens of the state. clmmense cheering.) Now, untaxed
gold can only represent intrinsic value ; it cannot repress
that additional cost which ought to be represented by
price—price meaning taxation added to intrinsic value.
Therefore, gold money or bits of bullion ought not to
form the legal tender for the home transactions of a coun-
try like Britain, which raises the vast mass of its revenue
by indirect taxes. (Loud applause.) Under such a mo-
netary system, it may be demonstrated that free trade
with foreigners, less taxed than ourselves, must prove de-
structive of native industry. (Continued cheering.) Sup-
pose the intrinsic value of a hat were 20 shillings, or 5
dwts. of gold, and that a tax of 50 per cent. were imposed

on hats. Then the manufacturer, to retain his position,
would be entitled to 30 shillings, or 71 dwts. for his hat ;
and this increased price he would get, if all foreign com-
petition were prohibited. (Cheers.) But admit an un-
taxed foreigner into our market, whose hats are in all
respects equal in quality to those of the native produce,

that is to ;ay, posiess equal intrinsic value. The foreigner
could sell his hats for twenty shillings, or 5 dwts. of gold,

since he owes 10s.' or 21 dwts. of gold, as 07 tax to the go-
vernment. Sir Robert Peel tells us to buy in the cheapest
market ; now, in this case the foreign article would be
the cheapest ; we therefore should buy it ; the native
producer must therefore abandon his trade, unless he
carried it on by losing 10s. on every hat he sold, and in
that view he must ultimately be driven into the Gazette.
This illustration applies to every commodity which fo-
reigners can produce ; and the general rule to be deduced
is, that free trade cannot be carried on between two coun-
tries unequally taxed in a legal tender money which only
expresses intrinsic value, and does not express price. Am I
than a protectionist? Far from it. Do I oppose free trade ?

(Cheers.) But I hold to consist
trade in the commodity of

The very reverse
and insist on the same free-

as I could wish to enforce in respect to every other con
modity. I therefore propose to adapt our monetary sy:
tem so as to render perfect free trade useful, while I at ti

ive to native industry that meat
.h it is entitled, precisely becalm(
articles of con sum nt

tion to whit
revenue by taxing ti

iative industry naturally sul

(Cheers.) Let, the Gover
pound and upwards to t

Let these be declared to be legal tender, c
taxes at the same nominal value at which tht
nally issued by the Government. Now, let tilt
manufP- -” enter into free competition, as
5 dwts. of gold ; he ss

vertible into

.cturc
imed. He requires
in opposition to the Englishmen, who requir

ner will receive three taxation not
msobtain nominally 305., but when he