212 .1. L. Bishop — T]ic State Worli.s of Pennsylvania. 



mill on the dollar on all county rates and levies; third, a tax on 

 inns and taverns, expected to add $40,000 yearly revenue; fourth, 

 a tax on judicial proceedings such as recording deeds and mortgages, 

 estimated as capable of swelling the annual revenue by $50,000; 

 fifth, an alteration of the law concerning the retailing of mer- 

 chandise, so as to give an increase of $40,000 annually. 



By the time the above recommendations had been fully discussed 

 in both houses of the legislature, items three, four, and five were 

 cancelled, and only the first two were included in the tax laws of 

 March 25th, 1831. These were to be kept in force for five years, 

 and would therefore have expired by limitation in March, 1836, had 

 they not been repealed previously.* They were designed to help 

 replenish the interest fund, only until the revenue expected from the 

 public works should be ample to meet this and many other purposes. f 



It is hardly necessary to say that the above tax laws were unim- 

 portant and entirely insufficient. In fact they may have been 

 designed by the legislature rather to raise credit than actual rev- 

 enue. During the period of almost five years in which they were 

 in force, the total amount of revenue collected was only 

 $1,052, 650. 78. 1 By 1835, the last year these laws were in force, 

 the yearly interest on the improvement loans slightly exceeded this 

 figure. § Certainly no further facts are necessary to demonstrate 

 the futility of the taxation policy of 1831. 



In spite of the failure of the legislature to create an interest 

 fund Avhich should be "both ample and permanent," no further 

 trouble was experienced for some time in securing, upon easy terms, 

 the money necessary to carry on the public works. In fact, all the 

 loans floated for the purpose of bringing the improvements to com- 

 pletion in 1834 bore a substantial premium. || Por instance, the 5 

 per cent, stocks of 1832-33, to the amount of $2,500,000, redeemable 

 in 1860, sold at almost, 15 per cent, above par.|f The reasons for 

 this are apparent. In the first place, the expressions of determina- 

 tion to preserve the credit of the state, at the time of its temporary 

 decline in 1829, tended to make the money lenders confident regard- 



* They were repealed on Febriiaiy 18th, 1836. 



fSee J. H. Rep., 1831-32, II, pp. 20-21. 



:|: Hammond, Talnilnr View of the Financial Afl'airs of Pennsylvania, p. 14. 



§lbid., p. 11. 



11 Ibid., p. 9. 



U Hunt's Mer. Mag., XX, 1849, p. 260. 



