Sources of Revenue. 25 



Connecticut was still principally an agricultural community. Cor- 

 porations had not become important, railroads were unknown, no 

 large cities existed, and there were no great differences in wealth 

 among the inhabitants. Before the end of this period, however, 

 inequalities in wealth began to appear and consequently the opinion 

 grew that some changes should be made in the system of taxation. 



These changes were finally effected in the next period when the 

 first Republican party came into power. During the first period, 

 however, some changes were made in the rate (cf. above Usts) and 

 the number of articles to be listed was slightly increased. To en- 

 courage the raising of sheep, the general assembly at the October 

 session 1800^ passed an act directing the listers to deduct from 

 the hst of every person raising sheep at the rate of seventy-five 

 cents for every sheep ten months old and upwards from which 

 a fleece of wool was shorn in the season next preceding the giving 

 in of the list, and the act was not repealed until the May session 

 in 1814.2 At the October session of 1804^ stores were added to the 

 list under three classes: (1) stores one story high were to be listed at 

 ten dollars ; (2) stores two stories high at twenty dollars ; and (3) stores 

 three stories high at thirty dollars. The general assembly also voted 

 at this session that bank stock should be listed at three per cent of 

 its value. This was the earliest provision for taxing stock and the 

 only stock taxed by the state during this period was bank stock. 



Whenever the general assembly levied a state tax on the towns, 

 it determined the amount of the tax and the rate of taxation by requir- 

 ing every town to pay a stated amount on every dollar in its 

 lla^e to^^^ li^^- The rates vary during this period, from five mills 

 to two cents on the dollar. However, in the fiscal year ending 

 in April, 1816, two taxes were collected making the actual rate that 

 year about three and a half cents on the dollar. Calling, then, the 

 rate of taxation for the fiscal year ending in 1816 three and a half 

 cents, the average rate of state taxation on the grand lists of the 

 towns from 1796 through 1816 (the hst on which the last state tax 

 of this first period was laid) was eleven mills. 



The towns were directed by law, as in the colonial days, to elect 

 every year one constable whose duty should be to collect the 

 state tax. The principle of utilizing the machinery 

 of'state^Tax °^ town government for state purposes has been con- 

 tinued to the present time* 



1 Conn. Laws, Oct. 1800, p. 533. ^ Conn. Laws, May 1814, chap. 21. 



3 Conn. Laws, Oct. 1804, p. 676, sec. 5. * Conn. Laws, 1796, p. 118. 



