156 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Thus, in the case of distilled spirits, the taxation was advanced 

 in successive years from twenty cents per gallon to sixty cents, next 

 to a dollar and fifty cents, and finally to two dollars per gallon, and 

 in each of these instances, and particularly after the imposition of 

 the first two and lowest rates, the distillers and speculators reck- 

 oned, with a great degree of certainty, that a further large ad- 

 vance would be enacted, and that the new law would not be made 

 retroactive or applicable to spirits distilled and assessed pre- 

 viously and at lower rates. In this they were not disappointed, 

 for Congress, under the influences to which it was subjected, did 

 virtually legislate in each instance in the manner expected, and 

 thus gave occasion for the realization of profits in strict conformity 

 with law by the holders of stocks made in anticipation of the sev- 

 eral advances, which can not be estimated at a less aggregate than 

 one hundred millions of dollars. Thus, the evidence before the 

 United States Revenue Commission in 1865-'66 showed that there 

 was on the 1st of January, 1864, a stock of tax-paid distilled 

 spirits, made in anticipation of an increased tax, sufiicient to meet 

 all the requirements of the country for a period of six months, 

 and on each gallon of this quantity, a profit or revenue, which did 

 not accrue to the Government, of from sixty cents to a dollar and 

 forty cents per gallon was realized. And yet, with this lesson of 

 costly experience before it, the Fifty-third Congress, in advancing 

 the tax on distilled spirits from ninety cents to a dollar and ten 

 cents per gallon, afforded again such facilities to distillers and 

 speculators, for anticipating such advance, as to legislate into 

 their pockets at least ten millions of dollars. 



In the case of cotton, which advanced mainly by reason of 

 conditions affecting its production or distribution, it was shown 

 by actual calculation, in respect to one manufacturing corpora- 

 tion in New England, that if they had at the commencement of 

 the war burned their mills, lost their insurance, and sunk their 

 capital other than was invested in cotton, and had subsequently 

 sold their cotton at the highest price obtainable in place of manu- 

 facturing it, the result would have afforded to the stockholders 

 an annuity of at least twelve per cent on their original invest- 

 ments. 



How much the cost of the war and its expression in the form 

 of debt, were unnecessarily increased by this state of affairs, has 

 not until very recently been taken into account by writers on the 

 fiscal history of this period, and probably can not be accurately 

 estimated. But the following data throw great light on the sub- 

 ject : Thus, assuming the general average of prices in the loyal 

 States of the Union before the war, or, more precisely, in 18G0, at 

 100, the average from 18G0 to 1865 was 18071. But for the last 

 year of the war, or in 1865, it was 216*81, and it was during this 



