298 



FINANCES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



in the city, by will, or inheritance of kin, is about 

 thirty-one millions of dollars. Such taxes when 

 moderate have little influence in checking the 

 development of industry. A tax of one per 

 cent., it was estimated, would yield three mil- 

 lions of dollars annually. The taxes on gross 

 receipts are those mainly levied on transporta- 

 tion and intercommunication. The majority 

 of them, excepting railroads, yield an incon- 

 siderable revenue. The receipts from bridges 

 and toll-gates, in 1865, were $75,269; from 

 canals, $92,421; from ferries, $126,133; from 

 stage-coaches, wagons, etc., $469,188 ; and 

 from railroads, $5,917,293. The tax on sales 

 of stock-brokers was one-twentieth of one per 

 cent., or five dollars on the sales of ten thou- 

 sand dollars of the par value of the stock sold, 

 which proved to be too heavy to be raised from 

 the whole amount of the business transacted, 

 and was, doubtless, largely evaded. The 



stock-brokerage business is otherwise most fre- 

 quently taxed; a tax being imposed upon 

 every certificate of stock taken, and on every 

 contract for delivery of stock. So that if it had 

 been possible absolutely to enforce the law, the 

 brokerage business for the sale of stocks would 

 have been nearly or quite extinguished. It was 

 suggested that the tax should be made one- 

 hundredth of one per cent. It is a long-recog- 

 nized and sound commercial principle that large 

 and frequent business transactions, turning on 

 small profits, should be subjected to the min- 

 imum specific tax. After some amendments of 

 the internal revenue law on some of the points 

 above noticed, and with an estimate of $130,- 

 000,000 from customs, and $21,000,000 from 

 miscellaneous sources, the following estimate 

 was presented by the commissioners above 

 mentioned, as the aggregate results for the 

 fiscal year ending June 30, 1867: 



Aggregate remits for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1867. 



From Customs $130,000,000 



Excise, viz. : 



Distilled spirits $40,000,000 



Fermented liquors 5,000,000 



Tobacco and its manufactures ; 18,000,000 



Cotton (raw) .' 40,000,000 



Coal-oil, refined petroleum, etc 3,000,000 



Spirits of turpentine, and rosin 2,000,000 



Licenses 15,000,000 



Incomes 40,000,000 



Salaries 2,000,000 



Banks 15,000,000 



Stamps 20,000,000 



Gross receipts 9,000,000 



Sales 4,000,000 



Legacies and successions 3,000,000 



$103,000,000 



Miscellaneous receipts, 18G6-'67,. 



$108,000,000 

 21,000,000 



Aggregate $367,000,000 



By adding to the above sum the amount re- 

 ceived in the fiscal year 1865, from the various 

 direct and indirect taxes on industry, which, 

 excepting the amounts derived from the excise 

 on spirits, beer, tobacco, cotton, petroleum, and 

 naval stores, was estimated at about sixty-eight 

 millions of dollars, and the gross revenue pos- 

 sible from all sources by the above estimate is 

 four hundred and thirty-five millions of dol- 

 lars. Allowing the annual expenditures to be 

 increased sixteen millions, and setting aside 

 fifty millions for the reduction of the public 

 debt, a surplus would remain of sixty-eight 

 millions applicable to the reduction of taxation. 

 Accepting these results as substantially correct, 

 the possibility of adopting a revenue policy 

 which should consist in concentrating the 

 sources of revenue, and of relieving industry 

 of all those burdens which tend to check its 

 development, was demonstrated. All parties, 

 however, were conscious that in the existing 

 condition of the currency, and of the trade and 

 commerce of the country, any financial esti- 

 mate which could be made of the future must 

 be somewhat problematical and liable to be 

 affected by causes which the most sagacious 



could not foresee. The views of this commis- 

 sion on the course to be pursued for the future 

 were that at this time no such amount as fifty 

 millions should be withdrawn from the reve- 

 nues for the redemption of the principal of the 

 public debt. On the contrary, they believed it 

 to be the true interest of the government that 

 taxation should be reduced at the earliest pos- 

 sible moment, to its minimum, thereby making 

 sure the future industrial development of the 

 country ; and that no considerable sum should 

 be immediately raised by taxation for the re- 

 duction of the principal of the public debt. In 

 this view, consideration was had for the fact 

 that the Government had taken to itself nearly 

 every source of revenue except the single one 

 of real estate, which was already burdened with 

 the indebtedness of the State governments, 

 that the people were largely in debt, and that 

 the development of the country had hitherto 

 surmounted every financial embarrassment. 



On July 13, 1866, Congress passed an act 

 relative to internal revenue, which provided 

 for an abatement or repeal of the taxation on 

 various articles amounting to nearly fifty mil- 

 lions of dollars. This legislation gave sensible 



