282 ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES

import and export duties (see p. 249, ¢f seg.). In the case
of a duty on tea imported into the country, it is somewhat
obvious that the importer pays the duty, but that he has no
intention of bearing the burden. He expects, and, speaking
generally, contrives to pass on the charge to those to whom
he sells, who pass it on in turn till the final resting-place of
the burden of the tax is on the consumer. Some increase of
the burden is, in fact, generally produced in such a course of
transference from one to another. . None of the dealers who
advance, or become responsible for, the duty do so gratuitously,
 and the charges, made as a recompense for making
such advances, are added to the burden which the duty
imposes on the consumer. In distinguishing between the
original person who pays a tax and those who finally bear
the burden, it is convenient to refer to the former by speaking
of the impact of the tax, the latter by speaking of its ultimate
incidence. The incidence may or may not differ from the
impact. Where it does differ the tax is called an indirect
one, where it is the same the tax is called direct, as the levy
is then made directly from the person who ultimately bears
the burden of the tax. The problems connected with the
determination of the real incidence of various forms of taxation
 are among the most difficult problems of economics.
We shall only consider some of the most general features of
this class of problems.
It is useful to examine generally the effect of taxation
of the chief forms of income, namely, rent, interest, wages,
profits. The mode of levying such taxes is of great importance
 in determining their results, but we shall, for the purposes
of this discussion, assume that the taxes are levied separately
and distinctly on these constituents of income. Take first
the case of taxes on rent. Inasmuch as the amount of rent
Is not, as was seen when it was discussed (see Chapter VIL), a
cause of high or low price for the commodity in whose production
 the rent-yielding agent is employed, a tax on rent is
not an influence affecting that price. If the government, for
example, claim ten per cent. of rent, that fact does not
influence the total of the rent or the supply of the commodity
concerned. This latter is, presumably, already arranged on