234 AGRICULTUKE OS THE EHIXE. 



From this table we see that the annual return from a 

 morgen, two-thirds of an acre, is estimated very low. The 

 average of the Steinberg vineyards for twenty years is 

 half a pipe per morgen : now as the cheapest wine is worth 

 in the Rhinegau 200 florins per pipe, the valuation at 50 

 florins, on which the simple rate amounts to 12^ kreutzers, 

 or 4d. English, is very moderate. When five simpla, as 

 they are called, in the year are required, the majority of 

 the Rhinegau vineyards do not pay more than about 

 2s. 6d. per acre. In the same manner the return sup- 

 posed to be derivable from arable land is rated very low 

 in all the German States, although the Governments went 

 to vast expense and trouble, when the land-tax was regu- 

 lated, to discover what the cost of cultivation under its 

 rudest form amounted to. Prices also ranged generally 

 low in the years in which this regulation was effected, and 

 the result has been a very moderate assessment. In Nas- 

 sau, Ilesse, and Baden, the return having been deter- 

 mined by commissions of inquiry, and established at some- 

 thing like the rate found in Prussia, a tax of one kreutzer 

 in the florin, or one in sixty, was levied upon the supposed 

 net produce, to form what is called the simplum. The 

 number of simpla to be levied for the year's expenses is 

 determined in Nassau, Hesse, and Baden by a vote of the 

 Chambers. The direct taxes, and not the indirect taxes 

 and excise duties, form the fluctuating items of the budgets 

 of these States. The customs' duties are regulated by the 

 periodical congresses that assemble to fix the tariff" of the 

 ' Zollverein.' On adhering to this customs' league each 

 of the German States that has representative asssemblies 

 was obliged to resign, by a vote of the Chambers, the ar- 

 rangements of the customs' duties to the executive, and 



