326 



FRANCE. 



half the navigation bounty. To counteract this 

 in the new law continuing the bounties from 

 Jan. 1, 1891, they are granted only to vessels 

 built in France. 



Railroads. The total length of French rail- 

 roads in the middle of 1889 was 32,944 kilome- 

 tres. The state owns 2,468 kilometres. The 

 business of the railroads was greatly augmented 

 in 1889 by the Universal Exposition. The 

 gross receipts of all the lines were 1,109,300.- 

 000 francs against 1.049,500,000 francs in 1888 

 and 1,046,000,000 francs in 1887. In the lat- 

 ter year the expenses were 540,400,000 francs, 

 leaving a net income of 505,600,000 francs. The 

 number of passengers was 218,400,000 ; the num- 

 ber of tons of freight was 78,100,000, having 

 declined from 89,100,000 tons in 1883. 



The Post-Office. The number of post-offices 

 in the beginning of 1889 was 6,932, or one for 

 every 5,500 of the population. The post-office 

 in 1887 handled 653,200,000 ordinary letters, of 

 which 544,100,000 were domestic and 109,100,- 

 000 foreign; 18,800,000 registered letters, 10,- 

 100,000 domestic and 2,700,000 foreign ; 41,300,- 

 000 postal cards, 36,400,000 domestic and 4,900,- 

 000 foreign ; 401,500,000 newspapers, 340,400,000 

 domestic and 61,400,000 foreign ; 30,800,000 

 samples, 24,400,000 domestic and 6,400,000 for- 

 eign ; 377,200,000 circulars and manuscripts, 

 355,200,000 domestic and 22,000,000 foreign; 

 and 22,600,000 money orders, of the total value 

 of 705,300,000 francs, of which 21,200,000, rep- 

 resenting 629,700,000 francs, were national and 

 1,400,000, for the amount of 75,600,000 francs, 

 were international, exclusive of 7,500,000 francs 

 transferred by foreign postal orders. 



Telegraphs. The length of the telegraph 

 lines on Jan. 1, 1889, was 88,047 kilometres, with 

 276,527 kilometres of wires. In Paris there are 

 237 kilometres of pneumatic tubes in opera- 

 tion. The number of telegrams in 1887 was 22,- 

 341,000, inclusive of 3,177,500 cards and letters 

 dispatched through these tubes. 



Finances. About 62 per cent, of the State 

 revenue is derived from indirect taxes ; 20 per 

 cent, from the tobacco and gunpowder monopo- 

 lies, the post-office, and telegraphs ; 15 per cent, 

 from direct taxes ; the remaining 3 per cent, from 

 state lands, railroads, and other sources. The 

 budget for 1890 makes the total receipts 3,046,- 

 417,120 francs, including 766,945 francs of spe- 

 cial resources and 60,486,969 francs of appen- 

 dices pour ordre, consisting of duplicate entries 

 transferred between different accounts. Omit- 

 ting these, the ordinary revenue was estimated 

 at 2,985,163,206 francs, of which 448,411,000 

 francs come from the direct contributions, 1,874,- 

 789,300 from indirect taxes, 591.842,362 francs 

 from state monopolies, 42,706,350 francs from 

 domains and forests, and 27,414,194 francs from 

 various sources. The land tax produces 118,- 

 548,000 francs; tax on buildings, 63,450,000 

 francs; personal capitation and property tax, 

 75,055,500 francs; door and window tax, 49,272,- 

 900 francs; trade licenses, 104,150,400 francs; 

 carriage tax and other special taxes, 29,154,500 

 francs; direct taxes in Algeria, 8,779,700 francs. 

 Of the indirect taxes, the registration fees amount 

 to 509,104,300 francs ; stamps, 159,797,400 francs; 

 customs duties, 373,985,500 francs ; excise and 

 other indirect taxes, 582,594,500 francs ; personal- 



property tax, 50,424,000 francs ; sugar duty, 178,- 

 700,000 francs ; indirect taxes in Algeria, 20,183,- 

 600 francs. The total expenditure was estimated 

 at 3,769,647,803 francs, including 154,073,000 

 francs of extraordinary expenditure, 475,672,106 

 francs of treasury and other special votes, and 

 93,881,833 francs of special state expenses. The 

 total ordinary expenditure amounts to 3,046,- 

 020,874 francs, divided as follow : Public debt 

 1,318,284,408 francs; President, Chamber, and 

 Senate, 13,044,048 francs; justice, 37,468,450 

 francs; religion, 45,085,503 francs; foreign af- 

 fairs, 14,168,500 francs ; Ministry of the Interior. 

 60,873,310 francs for France and 7,282,635 

 francs for Algeria ; finance, 19,577,370 francs ; 

 posts and telegraphs, 1,906,000 francs : Ministry 

 of War, 556,833,550 francs ; Ministry of Marine, 

 203,148,225 francs; colonies, 52,238,716 francs; 

 public instruction, 139,984,038 francs ; fine arts, 

 12,063,905 francs; commerce and industry, 20,- 

 534,483 francs; agriculture, 20,539,483 francs; 

 public works, 20,737,830 francs of ordinary and 

 113,168,384 francs of extraordinary expenditure ; 

 expenses of collecting taxes, 329,893,085 francs ; 

 repayments, etc., 22,666,500 francs. For the 

 twelve years ending with 1887 the total ordinary 

 receipts amounted to 35,337,510,651 and the ex- 

 traordinary receipts to 5,458.673,935 francs. The 

 aggregate sum actually received into the treas- 

 ury during that period, eliminating 406,691,780 

 francs borrowed from preceding budgets, was 

 40,389,492,806 francs, and the actual disburse- 

 ments were 40,671,646,433 francs. In 1889 there 

 was a great falling off in registration fees, the 

 movable property tax, customs, and sugar, four 

 of the main sources of revenue; yet this was 

 made good by the augmented receipts from 

 tobacco, excise, railroad travel, telegraphs, and 

 postage stamps incidental to the Paris Exposition. 

 In framing the budget for 1891 M. Rouvier 

 strove to devise a uniform type and to give it a 

 character of stability by a process that he called 

 unification. The extraordinary military expend- 

 itures that had been considered transitory it 

 was necessary, owing to the increase of the army, 

 to treat as permanent, and therefore he merged 

 the extraordinary in the ordinary budget. The 

 short loans that former ministers have expected 

 to redeem with surplus receipts he proposed to 

 convert into a perpetual 3 per cent, rente. New 

 sources of revenue must be found, and yet the 

 promised relief given to the land owners by a re- 

 duction of the land tax. This he proposed to 

 accomplish by introducing the uniform rate of 

 3 '97 per cent, of the net annual value of all 

 kinds of real estate, the land tax having been 

 heretofore 4*6 per cent, in some departments 

 and more in others and the building tax 3'03 per 

 cent. This would produce an increased revenue 

 of 17.000,000 francs, and the agricultural classes 

 were expected, in return for the relief thus given 

 and for protective duties, to submit to a higher 

 tax on sugar, for which a pretext was found in 

 the unreliable statements of refiners, the aboli- 

 tion of the privilege of distilling liquor for pri- 

 vate use, and other new taxes. The reduction of 

 the land tax was not sufficient to satisfy the pow- 

 erful agrkmltural interests. The budget commit- 

 tee cut down the ministers' estimates of expendi- 

 ture to 3,162,000,000 francs by saving on extraor- 

 dinary military expenditure, suppressing the in- 



