126 The Financial History of Connecticut. 



priations for these purposes were increased during the period and 

 frequently the amount allowed was found by the officials entrusted 

 with its expenditure to be larger than necessary. 



3. Influence of Corporations. 



It is now appropriate to return to the important part played by 

 corporations in defraying the expenses of the state. As already 

 stated in a preceding paragraph, they caused expense to the state, 

 but they also contributed to its support. ^ The introduction, in the 

 early fifties, of special taxes on corporations is the most important 

 feature of this period. As the old system of specifying the property 

 which should be taxable was abolished in 1850 and a list of property 

 which should be exempt from taxation was substituted, the origin 

 of the modern taxation system may be set at the year 1851. 



4. Principal Items of Revenue. 



The income from the school fund as in the two preceding periods 

 was the largest source of revenue. The state tax continued to be 

 the second in importance, and until the last two years of the period 

 the income from the permanent fund maintained its relative impor- 

 tance of third. At that time the tax on the deposits in savings 

 banks and institutions supplanted it. In several years during this 

 period the state was required to resort to temporary loans and at 

 the close of the period it was indebted to the school fund for fifty 

 thousand dollars. 



1 Cf. p. 125. 



J 



