! b 



5 



APPLETONS' N ^SEreEj 

 POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



JULY, 1896. 



PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 



By DAVID A. WELLS, LL.D., D. C.L., 



OOBRESPONDANT DE l'iNSTTTUT DE FKANCE, ETC. 



II. THE PLACE OF TAXATION IN LITERATURE AND HISTORY. 



PART VI. 



THE Tax Experiences of India. In contrast with the rec- 

 ord of tax experiences in Egypt, that of India under like 

 (British) influences, though equally singular and instructive, is 

 not equally satisfactory. The elements of the problem of rais- 

 ing sufficient revenue to defray the expenses of the state since 

 India passed under British rule and influence are substantially as 

 follows : 



A vast area of territory 1,609,151 square miles with a popula- 

 tion comprising more than one fifth of the human race 288,159,- 

 692 in 1891 and increasing at the rate of at least 30,000,000 for 

 every decade, a number about equal to the present population of 

 England and Wales ; without homogeneity, but divided and sub- 

 divided, as is the case in no other country, by diversity of race, 

 religion, caste, and language.*. Of the population of India, 217,- 

 000,000, according to the census of 1881, were unable to read or 

 write ; while as respects property, the testimony of recognized au- 

 thorities in 1877 was, that the value of the total yield of the land 

 of India from all sources, including the produce of mines and the 



* In the Statistical Abstract relating to British India, annually published by the home 

 Government, eighty-eight different languages, distinctively Asiatic or non-European, are 

 recognized as characteristic of the population. In 1884-'85 out of a then total population 

 of 253,891,536, only 202,920 were reported as using English in the sense of a mother- 

 tongue; and only 1,862,626 that admitted of classification as " Christians." 

 YOL. xlix. 24 



