THE BEST METHODS OF TAXATION. 741 



The transit dues, once commonly used by different countries, have 

 been generally abandoned, and in China must they be sought for in 

 their original forms of vexatious and unprofitable force. They arose 

 from a desire to derive some benefit from a commerce permitted 

 grudgingly, and rarely attaining any high results. The same end was 

 sought by duties on exports, much employed when the country was 

 supposed to be drained of its wealth by what was sent out of it. The 

 conditions necessary for a successful duty on exports are not often 

 found, and only in a few countries are they now existent. In Italy, 

 South America, and Asia, exports of certain natural products are 

 taxed, and, as in the case of Brazil, yield a notable revenue. In 

 view of the rapid advancement of production in new countries and 

 of inventions in the old, whereby many natural monopolies have been 

 destroyed and competition made more general, such duties prove to be 

 more obstructive to trade than productive of revenue, and are rapidly 

 being abandoned. In spite of a formal prohibition of export duties 

 in the Constitution of the United States, they are sometimes suggested 

 in all seriousness. 



In thus clearing the path of what may be called dead or dying 

 methods of recent tax systems, the advantages enjoyed by the United 

 States in their freedom from such survivals become more evident. 

 The practice of farming taxes never gained a foothold in any part of 

 the country. Lotteries have been occasional, and with two excep- 

 tions have been conducted on a limited scale — that of Louisiana is 

 well known; an earlier instance is less known. During the Revolu- 

 tion one of the means resorted to by the Continental Congress for 

 income was a lottery, but the attempt proved disastrous to all con- 

 cerned, and was finally abandoned even more thoroughly than was 

 the continental currency. State monopolies of production and sale 

 of any commodity have never met with favor, and stand condemned 

 in the desire for individual initiative. As sources of revenue, the 

 public lands, state control of the post office, and of such municipal 

 undertakings as the water and, in a very few cases, the gas 

 supply, has been employed, and in place of profit the mere cost of 

 management is sought. More than any country of continental Eu- 

 rope, the United States has depended upon taxes, pure and simple, 

 unsupported or modified by state domains, state mines, state manu- 

 factures, or state monopolies. Even Great Britain in her local 

 taxation is bound and hampered by precedent, and pursues a system 

 that is notoriously confused, costly, and vexatious. Long usage and 

 the erection of independent and conflicting authorities on principles 

 other than fiscal have imposed upon the local agents the duty of 

 assessing and collecting county and borough taxes which are as in- 

 defensible in theory as they are difficult in practice. 



