3 02 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



as compared with other countries ; and the discriminations given by 

 British railways to foreign producers in the conveyance of goods. 



It would seem as if one could not acquaint himself to any consid- 

 erable extent with the great body of literature on this subject of the 

 recent depression of trade, without becoming impressed with the tend- 

 ency of many writers and investigators of repute, and of most of the 

 persons who have given testimony before the commissions of different 

 countries, to greatly magnify the influence of purely local causes. 

 "The real and deep-seated cause of all our distress," says the " Oxford 

 Prize Essay " for 1879, " is this : the whole world has been consuming 

 more than it has produced, and is consequently in a state of impover- 

 ishment, and can not buy our wares." 



Nearly all British writers dwell upon the immense losses to British 

 farming capital, contingent upon deficient crops since 1875, and the 

 decline in the value and use of arable land in the United Kingdom, 

 and concurrent decline in the price of agricultural produce, due to 

 foreign competitive supplies, as prime factors in accounting for trade 

 depression ; while, throughout much of the testimony given before the 

 British Commission by British manufacturers and merchants, the in- 

 jurious influence of hostile foreign tariffs on the exports of British 

 manufactures, and the competition of foreign manufactures in the 

 British home market, are continually referred to as having been espe- 

 cially productive of industrial disturbance. In France, the principal 

 assigned causes are, excessive speculation prior to 1878, followed by 

 bad crops ; the great falling off in the production of wine through the 

 destruction of vineyards by the phylloxera ; a serious depression of 

 the silk-trade industry ; the disappearance of sardines and other fish 

 from the coast of Brittany ; excessive taxation ; excessive increase in 

 manufactured products ; and restricted markets due to the competition 

 of foreign nations paying less wages. In Italy a succession of bad 

 crops, a disease among the silk-worms, and a stagnation of the silk 

 industry, are prominently cited ; while in Denmark, bad harvests, a 

 disturbed state of internal politics, an alteration in the metallism of 

 the country in 1873, and general over-production of manufactured 

 products, are popularly assigned as sufficient causes. 



Excessive taxation upon trade and industry, as a leading cause of 

 trade depression, has also found strong advocacy, and the evidence 

 brought forward is certainly impressive. The present annual burden of 

 taxation in Europe for military purposes at the present time is estimated 

 at about 170,000,000 (S850,000,000). In France, the complaints as 

 to the pressure of taxation on industry are universal. The imperial 

 taxation in 1884 was reported at 120,000,000 ($600,000,000) on a 

 population of 37,000,000. Local taxation in France is also very heavy, 

 the octroi duties for Paris alone for the year 1884 having amounted 

 to 139,000,000 francs ($27,800,000), in addition to which were other 

 heavy municipal taxes, as, for example, on carriages, horses, cabs, dogs, 



