156 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



priests, and people have long since passed away ; but if they 

 could return, their gratitude to the English tax commission 

 for the service rendered to their country and to their de- 

 scendants would certainly again be recognized and fitly com- 

 memorated. 



Another point of historical and fiscal interest in connection 

 with Egypt is worthy of notice. Of the conquest and occupation 

 of Egypt by the French, 1798-1801, the masses of its people have 

 but little knowledge ; but the name of General Kldber, to whom 

 the government of the country was intrusted by Napoleon on his 

 return to France, is still held in grateful remembrance, coupled 

 with the highest title that the Arabs could bestow upon him — 

 namely, " The Just " — because under his rule, as popular expres- 

 sion has it, " he levied taxes only once." * 



Taxation in Brazil. — A most striking and instructive ex- 

 ample of the strangulation of the commerce of a country, and its 

 consequent impoverishment by reason of a vicious system for the 

 collection of revenues, is to be found in the recent experience of 

 the South American state of Brazil. Its Government derives its 

 support mainly from export and import duties, and every prov- 

 ince, whether maritime or interior, collects a separate duty of 

 generally about four or five per cent on its exports, to which in 

 some instances a municipal tax is added. There is no taxation 

 upon either real or personal property ; but when a piece of real 

 estate is sold, the purchaser is required to pay a fee to the Govern- 

 ment of five per cent on the selling price. All stores are obliged 

 to obtain a license, for which a fee is exacted, the amount varying 

 with the kind of trade. The duties on imports are extremely 

 heavy, and on many articles, especially foods, are in excess of their 

 original cost at their place of production. On some of the princi- 

 pal articles of export the duties have been as high as twenty-three 

 per cent ad valorem, on rubber and cocoa fourteen per cent, and 

 thirteen per cent on coffee. Few countries have greater commer- 

 cial and industrial possibilities than Brazil ; but Nature's prodigal 

 efforts have been rendered futile by a vicious system of taxation, 

 which has so restricted the development of her resources that the 

 increase of exports in recent years has been mainly confined to the 

 single article of India rubber, for the supply of which the country 

 has practically a monopoly. What is raised in Brazil is taxed ; 



* For the material which has furnished the basis for the foregoing narrative of the 

 recent fiscal (tax) experience of Egypt, the writer has been mainly indebted to a book, 

 England in Egypt, London, 1894, by Sir Alfred Milner, formerly a member of the Egyptian 

 Fiscal Commission, and now chairman of the British Board of Inland Revenue ; to a series 

 of letters published in the London Times in 1894 ; to various official documents, and inter- 

 views with those personally conversant with the subject under consideration. 



