APPLETONS' 



POPULAR SCIENCE 



MONTHLY. 



JULY, 18 96, 



PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 



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



COBBESPONDANT DE L'iNSTTTUT D-E FEANCE, ETC. 



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



PART VI. 



THE Tax Experiences of India. — In contrast witli tlie rec- 

 ord of tax experiences in Egypt, that of India under like 

 (British) influences, though equally singular and instructive, is 

 not equally satisfactory. The elements of the problem of rais- 

 ing sufficient revenue to defray the expenses of the state since 

 India passed under British rule and influence are substantially as 

 follows : 



A vast area of territory — 1,609,151 square miles— with a popula- 

 tion comprising more than one fifth of the human race — 288,159,- 

 692 in 1891— and increasing at the rate of at least 30,000,000 for 

 every decade, a number about equal to the present population of 

 England and Wales ; without homogeneity, but divided and sub- 

 divided, as is the case in no other country, by diversity of race, 

 religion, caste, and language.* Of the population of India, 217,- 

 000,000, according to the census of 1881, were unable to read or 

 write ; while as respects property, the testimony of recognized au- 

 thorities in 1877 was, that the value of the total yield of the land 

 of India from all sources, including the produce of mines and the 



* In the Statistical Abstract relating to British India, annually published by the home 

 Government, eighty-eight different languages, distinctively Asiatic or non-European, are 

 recognized as characteristic of the population. In 1884-'85 out of a then total population 

 of 253,891,536, only 202,920 were reported as using English in the sense of a mother- 

 tongue; and only 1,862,626 that admitted of classification as " Christians." 



VOL, XLIX. — 24 



