APPLETONS' 



POPULAR SCIENCE 



MOITTIILY. 



JUNE, 1896. 



PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 



By DAVID A. WELLS, LL.D., D.C.L., 



CORRESPONDANT DE L'iNSTITCT DE FRANCE, ETC. 



II. — THE PLACE OF TAXATION IN LITERATURE AND HISTORY. 



PART V. 



TAXATION IN Egypt.— Herodotus, the Father of History, in 

 writing more than two thousand years ago about Egypt, char- 

 acterized it as a land of wonders, "containing more marvelous 

 things than any other country," and in this opinion the judgment 

 of succeeding ages, finding an all-sufficient warrant in primeval, 

 stupendous, and mysterious monuments, has been compelled, as it 

 were, fully to acquiesce. At this latter day, however, there has 

 been added to Egyptian history what may be rightfully termed 

 another wonder, namely, the most interesting and instructive ex- 

 perience in taxation in the world's history. Interesting and in- 

 structive because it affords the most striking and unprecedented 

 illustrations of the results contingent on an arbitrary and unin- 

 telligent treatment of a heavy annual requirement of revenue for 

 the support of a state, as contrasted with the results which have 

 been the sequence of a wise and practical policy for a like purpose 

 in the same country and under similar conditions. 



Previous to the military occupation of Egypt by the British 

 forces in 1882, consequent upon the suppression of the rebellion 

 under the lead of Arabi Pasha, the condition of the country was 

 wretched almost beyond conception. Its revenue system, in 

 accordance with Asiatic ideas, comprehended nearly every form of 

 iniquitous extortion. The principal source of revenue was essen- 

 tially in the nature of a land tax ; and for the dusky fellah, who 

 represents the bulk of the Egyptian population, and who with a 



TOL. XLIX. — 13 



