464 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 



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



CORRESPONDANT I)E x'lNSTITlTT DE FRANCE, ETC. 



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



PART VII. 



THE Tax Experiences of Switzerland. — Any review of the 

 notable experiences of the Governments of different coun- 

 tries in raising revenue for their maintenance and support would 

 be incomplete if it failed to notice those of Switzerland, where the 

 conditions involved are, to say the least, exceptional, or different 

 in many respects from those of any other government or country. 

 These conditions, stated briefly, are as follows : 



A country of comparatively small area — 15,964 square miles 

 — and in no small part uninhabitable and practically inacces- 

 sible, with a population in 1804 of about 3,000,000 (3,086,848). 

 These conditions may be best appreciated by the following 

 comparisons: Of the four countries that are immediately con- 

 tiguous to and bound Switzerland, France has an area of 204,003 

 square miles and a population of 38,343,193 ; Germany, 308,738 

 square miles and a population of 40,438,470 ; Austria- Hungary, 

 364,364 square miles and 40,810,016 population ; and Italy, 114,- 

 410 square miles and 39,699,785 population. A comparison with 

 some of the States that in the aggregate constitute the United 

 States also affords the following results : The whole of Switzer- 

 land has about one third of the area of the State of New York 

 and one half of its population ; one sixteenth of the area of the 

 State of Texas ; less than one third of the area of the State of 

 Georgia, etc. 



Of the total area of Switzerland, only seventy-two per cent, 

 or an area about as large as the States of Massachusetts, Con- 

 necticut, and Rhode Island combined, is classed as habitable and 

 productive ; and the soil of this portion does not yield sufficient 

 for the support of more than two thirds of the population, a large 

 percentage of the remaining third finding employment and sup- 

 port mainly in very small industries, occupying only a family. 

 The position taken by Switzerland in the trade and commerce of 

 the world is most remarkable, especially when the various natural 

 obstacles are considered — such as the absence of raw material for 

 her industries, asphalt being the only raw mineral product of 

 which the export exceeds the import — the costly and difficult 

 means of transport, and the restrictive customs established by 

 neighboring and bounding countries. Thus, a comparison of the 

 exports of different countries, in proportion to their population, 

 of manufactured products to the world's markets, shows that 



