Note 32 — SECTION IX. THE REAL BASIS OF RATES.

See Ricardo (Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, 3rd Section, page 144): “Of all commodities none are perhaps so proper for taxation as those which, either by the aid of nature or art, are produced with peculiar facility. Taxes on luxuries have some advantage over taxes on necessaries, they are generally paid from income, and therefore do not diminish the productive capital of the country.”

See also Leroy Beaulieu, Science des Finances, vol. i.