Revenue. 115 



The first tax of this kind was a tax of one-third of one per cent 

 aid in 1850 upon the market value of the capital stock of railroad 

 Tj ., . companies. If a railroad extended beyond the limits 



of the state, it was directed to pay that proportion 

 of the above tax which the length of the road within the 

 state bore to the entire length of the road.^ This was an annual 

 tax and was in lieu of all other taxes on railroad stock. From 

 April 1, 1850, until March 31, 1861, the state received from this 

 tax the sum of two hundred forty-nine thousand eight hundred 

 sixteen dollars, an average of twenty-two thousand seven hundred 

 eleven dollars a year. 



In 1851 the assembly passed an act providing that the agents 

 of all insurance companies not incorporated by Connecticut, but 



doing business therein, should pay a tax equal to 

 Foreign ^^q pgj. ^^t^^ qJ ^j^g gross amount of premiums and 



Companies assessments collected by them during the year. No 



tax, however, was to be collected from such companies 

 chartered by states which did not lay an excise or license upon 

 companies chartered by Connecticut and doing business within 

 their territory.^ This introduces for the first time the reciprocal 

 feature in taxation and the principle was carried further the next 

 year. The law was then changed by subjecting foreign insurance 

 companies to the same taxation that was imposed by their home 

 states upon. Connecticut companies.^ The legislature at this time 

 was very uncertain as to how foreign insurance companies should 

 be taxed. They afforded a good opportunity to increase the revenue 

 of the state and revenue was much to be desired ; on the other hand, 

 the home insurance companies, which would probably be taxed by 

 other states according to the poHcy Connecticut pursued in regard 

 to companies chartered by those states, were entitled to considera- 

 tion. The latter idea prevailed in 1852, but in 1853 the assembly 

 again laid the two per cent tax on the gross amount of premiums 

 and assessments which it laid in 1851.* Finally, in 1854, the re- 

 ciprocal law of 1852 was re-enacted^ and it was not altered again 

 during this period. The total amount of taxes received from the 

 agents during the first three years of vacillation was four thousand 

 nine hundred ninety-four dollars. After the act of 1854 the revenue 



1 Public Acts, May 1850, chap. 58, sec. 2. 



2 Public Acts, 1851, chap. 47, sec. 22. 



3 Pubhc Acts, May 1852, chap. 69, sec. 1. 

 « Pubhc Acts, May 1853, chap. 27, sec. 4 

 '' Pubhc Acts, May 1854, chap. 23. 



