CHAP. VIII.
In what manner the Illusion is preserved.
Book XIII.
Chap. 8.IN order to make the purchaser confound the price of the commodity with the impost, there must be some proportion between the impost and the value of the commodity; wherefore there ought not to be an excessive duty upon merchandizes of little value. There are countries in which the duty exceeds seventeen or eighteen times the value of the commodity. In this case the prince removes the illusion: his subjects plainly see they are dealt with in an unreasonable manner; which renders them most exquisitely sensible of their slavish situation.
Besides the prince to be able to levy a duty so disproportioned to the value of the commodity, must be himself the vender, and the people must not have it in their power to purchase it elsewhere: a practice subject to a thousand inconveniencies.
Smuggling being in this case extremely lucrative, the natural and most reasonable penalty, namely, the confiscation of the merchandize, becomes incapable of putting a stop to it, especially as this very merchandize is intrinsically of an inconsiderable value. Recourse must therefore be had to extravagant punishments, such as those inflicted for capital crimes. All proportion then of punishment is at an end. People that cannot really be considered as bad men, are punished like villains; which of all things in the world, is the most contrary to the spirit of a moderate government.
Again, the more the people are tempted to cheat the farmer of the revenues, the more the latter is
