Principles of social economics, inductively considered and practically applied, with criticisms on correct theories

Preface

IF there is one subject that should be more attractive the student and more inspiring to the citizen than another, it is that of social economics, because it deals directly and exclusively with the influences and conditions which control all human welfare. It is through a knowledge of the principles and laws of human economics that we are enabled to make nature contribute to man's comfort and luxury by substituting abundance for poverty, freedom for slavery, peace for war, intelligence and morality for ignorance and brutality ; in short, a civilization of democracy and culture for one of despotism and degradation. Whenever the science which should furnish the key to nature's bounties and the light to human progress becomes unattractive to the student and repulsive to the average citizen, we may be assured that there is something fundamentally amiss with the conception and treatment of the subject.

This is precisely the case with political economy to-day. Instead of being the beacon-light of industrial and social affairs, — the source to which all may turn for safe instruction and hopeful guidance, — it is the " dismal science " which students avoid, statesmen and capitalists disregard, citizens ignore, and laborers discredit. Why is a science so dreary and pessimistic, which by its very nature should be fascinating and hopeful ? The obvious answer is, that it fails to fulfill its function as a science of industrial welfare and social advancement. On nearly all fundamental questions affecting the production and distribution of wealth its doctrines are both uncertain and inconsistent. The popular

Vi PREFACE.

theory of wages has been exploded by experience,' and the current doctrines of value, interest, and profit have for generations been subjects of perplexing controversy between experts and sources of utter bewilderment to students.

This is mainly due to the fact that the accepted theories belong to the hand-labor conditions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which have very little relation to the factory conditions of the nineteenth century. Nor should this be a matter of surprise, since it is entirely consistent with the law of industrial evolution. In its development society has assumed several distinct and essentially different industrial phases, which have each changed the economic structure of society, shifting the centre of industrial movement and the point of view of economic study.

Under feudalism, for instance, the land-owning class was the centre of all social and industrial movement. Economic policy therefore was considered from the standpoint of a land-owning class.

With the development of manufacture and trade however, came a radical change in economic relations. Serfs became wage receivers, and the cultivation of the land passed to tenant farmers, which change transferred the distribution of wealth from the domain of authority, to that of economic law. By this transition the social basis of industrial prosperity was broadened, and the centre of economic movement was shifted from the industries required to supply the needs of a small land-owning class to those required to supply the demands of a relatively large commercial class, whose interests were more varied and extensive. In proportion as new conditions developed, the narrow paternal policy which was adapted to the old regime became inimical to the welfare of the community, and a reconstruction of economic doctrine from a new point of view became necessary. The efforts of two centuries to supply this need culminated in the " Wealth of Nations," which really marks the advent of middle-class political economy, whose influence has practically moulded the economic thought of the present century.

PREFACE. Vll

For the same reason that under feudalism every thing was viewed from the standpoint of the land-owner, every thing was now considered from the standpoint of the manufacturer and merchant, whose income was derived from trade.

How to promote sales became the fundamental idea of what has been well named the " Commodities School " of political economy. To sell extensively necessitated producing cheaply. And since wages formed the greater part of the cost of production, it appeared from the " commodities " point of view to be as necessary to obtain cheap labor as cheap raw material, and for the same reason. Consequently it became a cardinal doctrine of the '' Commodities School " that large profits depend upon low wages. " It has been my endeavor to show throughout this work," says Ricardo, " that the ratio of profits can never be increased but by a fall in wages." In the days of hand labor and small factories, when the consumption of the upper and middle classes furnished a sufficient market for products, this cheap-labor policy was successful in giving profits.

But this very success led to the development of large factories, which were destined again to revolutionize the economic structure of society. For since these large enterprises required a more extensive market for their success than any possible increase in the consumption of wealth by the upper and middle classes could furnish, the habitual demands of the masses for the first time necessarily became the foundation of industrial prosperity. Therefore it is in the needs of the masses that the economics of the future must be studied and statesmanship determined.

To such a change of indu'strial relations Adam Smith and his followers were altogether oblivious ; their conception of industrial evolution was too limited to enable them to anticipate it, and their purely " commodities " point of view prevented them from observing it. They saw the importance of the factory as a means of making wealth cheap, but they did not see the economic importance of making man dear. Having failed to recognize the laborer as the great factor in

VI 11 PREFACE.

a market whose consuming power must be increased, they continued to treat him only as a productive force in the factory, whose cost should be reduced, on the theory as Mill puts it, that " profits depend upon wages, rising as wages fall and falling as wages rise."

Thus through an effort to apply erroneous ante-factory theories to factory conditions political economy has for three quarters of a century been made a gospel of cheap labor and an enemy of social advance.

The growing incompetency of political economy to deal with modern conditions has begun to be recognized by inductive economists, and during the last twenty years an increasing departure from economic orthodoxy has been manifest among the younger economists of Europe and this country, which is now developing to the proportions of a new school.

In breaking from the hard and narrow lines established by the doctrines of early English economists, the " New School " has already rendered an important service to economic science, by making respectable the re-discussion of the fundamental principles governing industrial relations and political policy, in the light of modern knowledge.

Thus far, however, its work has been critical rather than constructive. It has contributed far more to break up the old than to establish a new body of economic doctrine. Although the English theory of wages has been repudiated and the doctrine of laissez faire rejected by them, no approximately adequate explanation of wage phenomena has been furnished, nor any affirmative principle of public policy suggested.

In the following pages I have endeavored to discuss the principles of social economics from the nineteenth century point of view. If the facts of modern experience are to be the court of final appeal, the great fundamental fact to be recognized in our society is the democratic basis of industry,

The factory system has made the use of natural forces (steam, electricity, etc.) necessary to successful industrial en-

PREFACE. IX

terprise. Nature is intensely democratic. She will only work cheaply when she is serving a large number. Kings and aristocracies may command the unpaid service of slaves, but natural forces will work efficiently only for the million. Millionaires could not travel by steam or communicate by electricity if millions of workmen did not use the same methods. In short, the success of all machine-using industries now primarily depends on the extent to which their products are consumed by the masses. Therefore the prosperity of the community in general and capitalists in particular depends upon increasing the wants and elevating the social life and character of the laboring classes. Considered from this standpoint, the whole subject of economics assumes a new and altogether more rational and humane aspect. It ceases to be a mere " science of wealth," subordinating producers to the product, and becomes a science of human welfare, making the social life of the producers the end to which the creation of commodities is the great means. In other words, it is transformed from a dismal science of pessimism and despair, which complacently sees the masses crowded to the verge of starvation, into a science of optimism and hope, which bears a message of prosperity and progress to the whole of humanity.

Besides giving economic science a humane, hopeful aspect hitherto conspicuously wanting, this change in the point of view makes it integral, harmonious, and intelligible. Much that has been involved in confusion becomes simple and clear; much that has been mistakenly regarded as unjust and oppressive enough to warrant revolution, becomes obviously beneficent and progressive ; and much that has been dolefully taught as axiomatic truth is seen to be manifest error.

Moreover, when we change our point of view from commodities to men, and make the laborer the initial point of observation, the questions of production and distribution become susceptible of discussion in terms intelligible to ordinary minds. We then find value or price assuming a human basis, and commodities are seen to be dear or cheap not as

X PREFACE.

they will exchange for more or less gold, but as they will exchange for more or less of labor, as economic equivalents- With this idea of value the theory of supply and demand of which Malthusianism and the wage-fund fallacy are a natural outcome, is incompatible. The ratio in which a given quantity of cloth or shoes is the economic equivalent of a day's labor can no more be determined by the mere fact of the quantity of cloth or the number of laborers, than can the moral quality of a robbery by the number of thieves. The only basis upon which two things can be economic equivalents of each other is the substantial equality of their cost of production. Upon no other principle can exchanges be economic, equitable, and mutually advantageous.

The principle of cost, governed as it is by the cost of the dearest portion of the economic supply of any commodity, furnishes a keystone to the arch of economic science. It supplies the basis for a consistent body of economic doctrine capable of explaining the phenomena of wages, rent, interest, and profit upon one general principle of universal application — namely, the law of economic price and its corollary, the law of economic surplus. Instead of a system of " commodity " economics which justifies human degradation as a means of cheapening wealth, we have a system of social economics, which shows that the most effective means of promoting the industrial welfare of society on a strictly equitable basis, must be sought in influences which develop the wants, and elevate the social life and character of the masses. Here then we have a sound, economic, and broad social basis for intelligent, humane, and progressive statesmanship, which shall promote individuality without incurring the follies of laissez faire, and utilize the educational and protective functions of the state without incurring the dangers of paternalism.

NEW YORK CITY, January, 1891.

Chapter I. Social Progress

FACE

The law of progress the key to history ....... 3

The nature of progress . . ^ ....... 4

Progress defined and phenomena classified 5

Its tendency shown by the primitive condition of man .... 6

By the development of the family as a social unit ..... 7

By the rise of the feudal system ........ 8

By the growth of free towns and individual rights .... 9

By the development of the middle class and the factory system . . IO Industrial progress different from social and political . . . .n

The source of individual freedom 12

Socializing effect of the wages system . . . . . . .13

Economic interdependence and social individuality a criterion of civilization, 14

Chapter II. The Law Of Social Progress

The elements in social progress 15

Natural order of social progress . . . . . . . .16

Industrial progress the basis of all progress 17

Comte's mistake 18

The intellect the servant of human wants ...... 19

Relation of egoism to altruism ........ 2O

Law of social progress summarized ........ 21

Xll CONTENTS.

THE CAUSE OF SOCIAL PROGRESS.

PAGE

Human wants the cause of social evolution . . . . . .22

Effectual and non-effectual desires ........ 23

The social source of equity 24

Intelligence, justice, and virtue have same origin ..... 25 As human wants increase civilization advances . . . .26

Chapter IV. Verification Of The Law Of Social Progress

Progress accompanies large consumption of wealth by the masses . . 27 Small consumption in Oriental countries ....... 28

Under ancient Greece and Rome, few rich, many poor . . 29

Slavery preponderates 30

Why ancient philosophy long remained without effect . . . .31 Arrested progress cause of Rome's fall ....... 32

Chapter V

THE RISE AND SOCIAL POWER OF FREE CITIES AS VERIFYING THE LAW OF SOCIAL PROCESS.

Barbarism supplanted by feudalism ........ 33

Concentration of the serfs in the towns ....... 34

The burgesses secure control of the towns by paying rent ... 35

Insurrection of the towns ......... 36

Transformation of towns into free cities 37

The cities were the homes of freedom 38

Chapter VI. The Fall Of The Free Cities And Its Effect Upon Social Progress

Progress arrested by their fall ......... 39

Spain distracted by religious wars ........ 40

Premature development in Italy . . . . . . . .41

German freedom destroyed by imperial alliance ..... 42

French cities overcome by the barons ....... 43

In England the cities not suppressed ....... 44

Charters rendered inviolable ......... 45

Labor rents superseded by wages ........ 46

Feudalism abolished by expansion of freedom in the towns ... 47

Increased wealth of the middle class . 48

CONTENTS. XI 1!

Chapter VII. The Law Of Social Progress As Verified In The Progress Of Political

AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM.

PAGE

Political power of English Commons ....... 49

Religious and political liberty follow material development ... 50 Wicliff's Bible succeeds ; Hussite War a failure . . . . .51

Character of the Jacquerie and the Peasant War . . . .52

Social character of the Reformation 53

Protestantism due to the social power of middle class .... 54 Condition of the masses from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century . 55

The factory system. Industrial legislation ...... 56

Right to vote extended to the laboring classes 57

Superior industrial conditions of America . . . . . .58

Difference between French and American Revolutions .... 59

Industrial prosperity cause of our free institutions ..... 60

Chapter I. Wealth And The Law Of Its Production

Mill's conflicting definitions of wealth ....... 63

Walker's definition ........... 64

Perry substitutes the word property .65

Essential characteristics of wealth 66

Wealth defined 67

Various views of production ......... 68

Theory of non-productive labor ........ 69

All useful labor productive .70

Differentiation of productive effort 71

Gratified desires complete the cycle of effort ...... 72

Land, labor, and natural forces the necessary factors in production . . 72

Land passive, man and nature active . . . . . • 73

Nature and character of capital ........ 74

Economic use of the term capital ........ 75

Use of capital determined by increasing returns ..... 76

Mistaken praise of parsimony 77

Capital the effect not the cause of industrial prosperity .... 78

Capital arises from the hope of gain ....... 79

No use for capital in barbarism ........ 80

Social consumption the cause of economic production . . . . 81

XIV CONTENTS.

PAGE

Characteristic simplicity of physical wants ....... 82

Complexity of social wants 83

Nature responds liberally only to large demand ..... 84

New wants make large markets ........ 85

High wages lead to low prices 86

Two kinds of discoveries under ancient and modern civilizations . . 87

Why ancient civilizations were not self-sustaining ..... 88

Resume of laws of production ......... 89

Chapter II. Economic Value

Adam Smith's definition confusing ........ 90

Relation of value and utility . . . . . . . . .91

Definition of value 92

Price and value identical . . . . . . . . 93, 94

Value a relation between man and things ...... 95

Mistaken point of view 96

Error of Mill and Cairnes 97

Value is not the exchange ratio of things to things, but of things to man . 98 Effect of the new point of view 99

Chapter III. Demand And Supply Not The Law Of Economic Prices

Economic price not governed by demand and supply .... 100

Gregory King's law .......... 101

It applies to agricultural products ....... 102

Not to manufactured products . . . . . . . 103, 104

The theory does not fit the facts 105

Wages do not obey the law of supply and demand ..... 106

Economic price the exchange of equivalents ...... 167

Cost the basis of economic equivalence ....... 107

Testimony of McCulloch 108

Cairnes' error regarding supply and demand 109

Commodities do not create demand . . . . . . .no

Demand the cause of supply . . . . . . . . .in

Origin of price .......... 1 12

Initial point of supply . . . . . . . . . .113

Price phenomena originate in man . . . . . . . .114

Chapter IV. The Law Of Economic Prices

Exchange ratio of wealth and service . ". . . . . .115

Meaning of economic law . . . . . . . . .116

CONTENTS. XV

PAGE

Laissez faire not scientific . . . . . . . . .117

Economic law defined . . . • . . . . . .118

Maximum and minimum price, how determined ..... 120

Cost the point of economic equilibrium 121

All the factors in production must receive the equivalent of what they contribute ............ 122

The possibility of an economic surplus ....... 123

Equity of economic law 124

How cost of production affects price . . . . . . .125

Origin of economic profits . . . . . . . . .126

Their equitable basis .......... 127

Primary law of price .......... 128

Character of price variations 129

Prices in the same market tend to uniformity ...... 130

Statement of law of prices 131

Verification of the law of prices . ' . . . . . . . 132

Agricultural prices . . . . . . . . . . .133

Relation of quantity to price 134

All prices regulated by cost of dearest portion ...... 135

Quality of labor determines its cost 136

Variation in wages ........... 137

Chapter V. The Law Of The Cost Of Production

Popular errors regarding cost of production 138

Simple phenomena misleading ......... 139

Ricardo's illustration . . . . . • . . . . 140

Cost and quantity ........... 141

Brassey's experience in several countries ....... 142

High wages make cheap wealth ...... . . 143

Important relation of wages to machinery ...... 144

Use of capital, how determined ........ 145

Nature and function of capital ........ 146

Importance of large market ......... 147

Wages measure the laborer's consumption 148

The true law of prices . 149

Chapter VI. Money And Its Economic Function

Walker's definition of money . . . . . . . . .150

Money and wealth not identical 151

Money an evidence of credit . . . . . . . . .152

Definition of money .......... 153

XVI CONTENTS.

PAGE

Function of money 154

Evils of fluctuations in the value of money , . . . . .155

Of what should money be made ? 156

Essential attributes of money 157

It must have maximum value in minimum form . . . . .158 Claims of a tabular standard . . . . . . . . .159

Its difficulties ........... 160

Need of a scientific price-level 161

Depreciation of money . . . . . . . . . .162

Inadequacy of metallic money ........ 163

Basis of a paper currency . . . . . . . . .164

Necessity of gold and silver 165

Because universally acceptable 166

Proportion between property and credit money ..... 167

Herbert Spencer's view 168

Essentials of a sound monetary system ........ 169

How to regulate the quantity . . . . . . . . .170

Advantages of private enterprise . . . . . . . .171

Money should be- taken out of politics . . . • . . . .172

Chapter I. The Distribution Of Wealth

Distribution inseparable from production ...... 175

It is an economic transfer. Difference between consumption and productive use . . . . . . . . . . .176

Function of productive wealth . . . . . . . .177

Order of economic distribution ........ 178

Walker's inconsistency . 179

Walker's doctrine of " residual claimant " fallacious . . . 180,181

Historic order of distribution 182

Economic order — wages, rent, interest, profit . . , . . .183

Chapter II. Some Recent Theories Of Wages Considered

Wood°s theory of wages 184

Doctrine of final utility .185

Mistaken application of 186

Wages not uniform in all industries ....... 187

CONTENTS. XVI i

Laborers' welfare depends on absolute not relative income . . . 188 Capital sometimes yields no interest . . . . . . .189

Wages not determined by rate of interest ...... 190

Nor must they be confounded with profit . . ' . . . 191

Uniformity in wages and prices ; diversity in profits .... 192

Prof. Clark's theory of wages ......... 193

He, like Marx, confounds the last increment with the dearest . 194, 195

Price-fixing increment not the same in manufacture as in agriculture . 196

Confounding wages with rent ......... 197

Price and surplusage 198

Defects of Prof. Clark's theory summarized . . . . . .199

Chapter III. The Law Of Wages

Requisites of a sound theory 200

Definition of wages 201

Real and nominal wages .......... 202

Wages the economic price of labor ........ 203

Statement of law of wages 204

Wages determined by standard of living ....... 205

Prices of labor and of products move differently ..... 206

Dearest laborers fix price of labor ........ 207

Poorest capitalists fix price of commodities 208

Relation between wages and savings-bank deposits .... 209, 210 Difference in cost of living the source of savings . . . . .211

Agriculture unfavorable to savings 212

Foreign laborers save more because they cost less 213

Very highest-paid laborers strike ........ 214

Family income regulated by its cost 215

How the cost of living is determined 216

Remedy for low wages 217

Chapter IV. Rent, Its Economic Law And Cause

The Ricardo- Walker definition of rent ....... 218

Amended definition .......... 219

Economic production as applied to land 220

The law of rent stated 221

Rent governed by the law of surplusage ....... 222

Walker's explanation of rent ......... 223

Fertility not cause of rent ......... 224

Rent has a social origin .......... 225

Relation of rent to prices ......... 226

XVI 11 CONTENTS.

PAGB

Economic basis of rent 227

Effect of population on prices 228

Effect of improved methods 229

Rent follows and leads the movement of wages ..... 230

Is rent a social tax ? . . . . . . . . .231

Difference in the economic order of using land and machinery . . . 232

Relation of rent to wages illustrated . 233

High wages cause of high rents ........ 234

Effect of abolishing rent .......... 235

ResumJ of the doctrine of rent ........ 236

Chapter V. The Law Of Interest

Interest related to capital as rent is to land 237

Walker's view considered ......... 238

Not consistent with facts ......... 239

No-interest capital common ......... 240

Economic movement of capital ........ 241

Economic movement of interest ........ 242

Improved methods constantly push capital towards the no-interest point . 243

True law of interest 244

The law illustrated 245

Surplus enlarged by increased production ...... 246

Entrepreneur's profit comes from surplus above rent and interest . . 247

The social character of interest 248

Chapter VI. The Law Of Profit

Orthodox errors the source of socialistic theories ..... 249

Employers' view of profit and wages ....... 250

Theories of Rodbertus and Marx . . . . . . . .251

Statement of Marx's theory of surplus value . . . . . .252

Misleading illustrations .......... 253

Fallacy of his theory demonstrated ........ 254

Relation of labor to value 255

Distribution of cost-items does not alter value 256

Cause of Marx's error 257

His mistaken assumptions . . . . . . . . . 258

Economic evolution of profit ......... 259

Equity of economic profit ......... 260

Surplus does not prove exploitation ........ 261

Ratio of product to profit and wages ...... 262, 263

Illustrated by cotton industry ......... 264

CONTENTS. xix

FACE

Mr. Giffen's view of wages and product 265

His error 266

Distribution of economic benefits ........ 267

Ratio of wages and profits to product 269

Defective modes of calculation ........ 270

They lead to false conclusions . . ... . . • • 271

Omitted data vitiate conclusions ........ 272

Salaries and depreciation of capital overlooked .... 273

Wages have increased relatively to net product ..... 274

Relative decrease of profits ......... 275

Correct mode of ascertaining economic condition of laborer . . . 276

Incompleteness of obtainable data ........ 277

Table showing ratio of wages to profits ....... 278

Nature of industrial tendencies ........ 279

Part IV

THE PRINCIPLES OF PRACTICAL STATESMANSHIP. CHAPTER I.

LAISSEZ FAIRE AS A GUIDING PRINCIPLE IN PUBLIC POLICY.

Origin of laissez-faire doctrine ........ 283

Adam Smith and the French Physiocrats ....... 284

Negative character of laissez faire- . . . . . . . .285

Its erroneous postulates . . . . . . . . . 286, 287

False views of competition . . . . . . . . . 288

Misuse of the term natural law ........ 289

Natural and human selection ......... 290

Survival of the unfittest .......... 291

Government essential to society 292

Character of economic competition . . . . . . . 293

The competing units must be approximately equal ..... 294

The necessity of opportunity .... ; .... 294

CHAPTER II.

THE STATE J OR, THE NATURE AND FUNCTION OF GOVERNMENT.

The state as distinguished from society ....... 295

No absolute rights in society ..... ... 296

All government is representative ........ 297

The state is the authoritative expression of the aggregate .... 298

Relation of the state to the individual . 299

XX CONTENTS.

PAGE

Social-organism theory of Plato, Hobbes, Rodbertus, Marx, and Spencer. 300

Spencer's claim that society is an organism, stated .... 301, 302

His fundamental propositions considered ...... 303

Radical distinction between society and an individual organism . . 304

Society is not an organic entity 305

Social evolution different from physical 306

Mr. Spencer logically supports socialism 307

Clark's attempt to apply this theory to economics ..... 308

His position analyzed .......... 309

The function of government . . . . . . . . .310

Importance of mutual dependence . 311

Controlling principle in statesmanship 312

Individual action preferable to state action . . . . . .313

Difficulty of determining their respective spheres .... 314, 315

Sphere of individual action 315

Sphere of state action 316, 317

Difference between protection and paternalism 318

State functions essentially protective and educational .... 319

THE PRINCIPLE OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE.

Necessity of national development 320

Society a means for individual advancement 321

The nation 322

Socializing tendency of manufacturing industries 323

Importance of their development 324

A large home market necessary 325

Superiority of home over foreign market ....... 326

Foreign markets and home wages ........ 327

A nation is rich by what it uses, not by what it sells .... 328

Test of economic cheapness . . 329, 330

False assumption of free-traders 331

Operation of free trade illustrated ....... 332, 333

Uneconomic competition ......... 334

Basis of economic competition . . 335

Popular fallacies regarding the nature of a tariff 336

The law of international competition . . . . . . 337

Weakness of the infant-industry theory ....... 338

Civilization depends upon protecting the higher against the lower . . 339

India, Ireland, and Russia ......... 340

England, America, and Continental countries ...... 341

Protection and home prices 342

Proper mode of testing a tariff ....'.... 343

Ultimate effect of a protective tariff on profits 344

CONTENTS. XX

PAG •

Effect of protecting the higher wage-level 345

Illustrated by cotton industry 346

Led to improved methods of production ...... 347

Effect on the industrial development in America . . . . 348

Wages in non-protected industries ........ 349

Erroneous views regarding 350

Mr. Elaine's mistaken view . . . . . . . . -35*

Has not outgrown the English theory of wages ..... 352

How protection affects wages ......... 353

Wages can only be raised by social forces 354

How to examine wages phenomena . . . . . . . -355

Industrial improvement affects all classes 356

Effect of protection upon other countries ..... 357, 358

How protection promotes the economic selection of industries . . -359

It leads to free trade 360

Its domestic application 361

CHAPTER IV.

THE PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMIC TAXATION.

Basis of equitable taxation . . . . . . . . . 362

It should come from surplus incomes ....... 363

The mobility of taxes . 364

Their relation to wages 365

How transferred from laborer to employer . . . . . . 366

How he pays them out of his surplus . . . . . . . 367

How his surplus is replenished from nature 368

Taxation like wages a form of consumption ...... 369

Economic importance of taxation exaggerated ...... 370

Taxes enable government to exercise its functions . . . . 371

How taxes should be levied, paid, and collected 372

Evils of direct taxation 373, 374

Property and incomes tax ......... 375

Advantages of indirect taxation ........ 376