Polynesian., 1844-08-03
SERIES, Vol. NO. IL.

'he IoTHlcr, WncH TIC WHO reHglOuSly pays
the Custom house dues, is well aware that
he cannot compete in the market with those
who avoid them by fraud, who are the great
est number These are not considerations
of a merely speculative order; they are the
result Of experience, and the data which the
ministry already possesses, prove that ex-
cepting in Mexico, ard one other Custom
house, the ID per cent consumption duty is
producing only the same or as much as the
3 per cent; and if that duty continues, as at
present, it may be predicted that the reve-
nue. from the maritime and internal Custom
houses will decrease; for the fact is, he who
conveys from one market to another, domes-
tic goods with foreign goods, to hide the lat
ter, conceals also the former, and in the
sea-board and frontier custom houses, either
there will be a falling off in the importations
from the diminished profits, or the consump-
ton will be less, or the %smuggler will in
crease his efforts to evade that internal bur-
den on his goods"
Furthermore, the late minister Of Finance,
Cansero in his memoria Of l84l, in a note
on the Cd page of his Table No. 8, with ref
erence to the 10 per cent Consumption duty
says:-"t the great contrahand in the inte-
rior may be inferred from this, that the s
per cent levied on '%internaiion' in the ports,
yielded 1891 ,522-4-94 grains, and the 10 per
cent on liquors $77, 527-6-3 ers. Doth SEEM
ing included in the sum of s.. sos ,43S-l-3t
referred to- the Is per 100 in the inter-
nal custom houses only produced 81 400, :38o-
l-3I, in place of 81, 400 900, which was what
correspondent, in proportion"
After these illustrations, not by any for
eigner interested in deceiving them, as they
are too apt to suspect, but from two Of their
own ministers of Finance, if the Mexican
congress men will not give up the point,
that in matters Of revenue, two and two do
not always make four, they must admit that,
occasionally, 5 multiplied by 3, does not
make ID, in what concerns the products Of
the duties they establish.
But those who pretend to lead public
opinion in this country, and really mislead
it, meet all such demonstrations with the
argument-if such it can be called-that tho
rules of political economy applicable to other
countries, are actually inapplicable to this.
A principle ofthis kind once established, and
carried out to its fullest extent, would not
only effectually bar all social and political
improvement, but throw the Mexican popu-
lation into a retrograde course, as compared
~ ou otIC PCoPICs OuI SutS 10 uOS tNC
principle they act upon, in matters vitality
affecting their prosperity. Thus, because
cotton and other manufactures have con-
tributed greatly to the wealth Of England,
they who are in circumstances quite oppo-
site, seek to establish their wealth, by d.
recting their capital and industry to the same
pursuits. And because the native manufac.
tories cannot exist under a system of free
trade, they eagerly search after the examples
of other nations to sanction the prohibitions
they have decrced. forgetting previously to
ascertain how far prohibitions in those coun-
tries promoted or retarded their prosperity;
and if the former, how far, the example,
from a parity or disparity of circumstances,
is applicable to themselves. While they
would thus copy the example of England, in
her manufactures, which / conscientiously
believe it is not their interest to attempt, in
1924, they rashly copied from the United
States their Federal Constitution, wholly
inapplicable to the former unity of their own
body-politic, and neglected those means
of augmenting their population and the pro-
auctions Of their soil. to which, and not to
their manufactures nor their federal institu-
tons, do the United States wv their gigantic
growth as a nation.
At the opposite extremity Of this continent
exists a people similar to the Mexicans in all
respects, of the same origin, and who have
passed through nearly the same phases
of revolution. The people ] refer to are the
ChiIiams. All who knew them between 1917
and 1880, will remember that they too had
the notion that gold and silver constituted
the only real wealth THAT high duties were
the best means TO keep that wealth in the
country. and to fill the treasury, land that
while such opinions prevailed. the people
were poor and disturbed, the treasury empty