ARGENTINE EEPUBLIC. 



value of the imports at the Rosario custom- 

 house reached $4,137,000; in 1877, up to Au- 

 gust 31st, they were only $2,379,000. 



It is clear that the "milch cow" of the na- 

 tional Treasury, as the custom-house is often 

 facetiously called, is running dry, under the 

 strain of exorbitant import duties. The ma- 

 jority of the Finance Committee declare that 

 it was only for "one year more" that the 

 country would be asked to bear the additional 

 burden ; but Senator Lucero declared that this 

 " one year more " might prove the hair that 

 breaks the camel's back, if the trial of the 

 experiment were persisted in. 



Indeed, the general voice of the press and 

 the country at large would seem to show that 

 the time has come when a further increase of 

 the tariff must prove useless, if not dangerous, 

 and that the way out of the still existing 

 trouble is through a yet greater reduction of 

 the Government expenses, rather than new 

 additions to the already too numerous burdens 

 heaped upon the commercial circles. 



Chief among the moderate economists above 

 alluded to, who propose the restriction of the 

 new imports to spirits and tobacco, is Sefior 

 Rufino Varela, Minister of Finance of the 

 province of Buenos Ayres. The following 

 extract, from a memoria by that gentleman, 

 under date of September, 1877, will serve to 

 make manifest some interesting details : 



I would propose to put a high duty on imported 

 spiritSj and so give rise to a new source of revenue 

 by taxing the spirits made in our country, and by 

 tliis means lessen the taxes on capital and industry, 

 cheapen the cost of the necessaries of life, and above 

 all free us from the heavy balance we pay out by the 

 fifth part of our wool, hides, and other products, in 

 exchange for wines and spirits. 



Another consideration : A tax, to be good, must be 

 general. And herein the tax on wines and spirits 

 is unrivaled. In Jujuy as in Patagones, in San 

 Juan as in Corrientes and Buenos Ayres, there is 

 a majority in consumers of spirits *and tobacco. 

 Therefore this tax in all parts is most remunerative, 

 and, as a source of revenue, is the most effective for 

 covering the expenses of a country. 



Let us suppose, in these three years of depression, 

 that the Argentine Government, to cover its deficits, 

 had, instead of a tax of 30 per cent., put a tax of 100 

 per cent, on spirits, as in the United States let 

 nobody say I take an exceptional country ; you can 

 also add France and industrious Belgium, and many 

 others should we have had to suffer so many dif- 

 ficulties ? 



If, in 1875, we had put on spirits the same tax 

 as in England, this would have given the country 

 an average revenue of $12,000,000 per annum, or 

 $36,000,000 for the last three years ; and, deducting 

 what was paid to the custom-house, would have left 

 $29,000,000, or twice the amount of our deficits. 



If high duties diminish importation, either it 

 would have been substituted by the manufacture in 

 our own co'untrv, or, owing to its dearness, the con- 

 sumption woulcl have diminished. 



In the first case, the national revenue would have 

 lost nothing, for to the custom-house duties could 

 be added the excise on the local production, and the 

 country would have gained, because agriculture is 

 necessary for the manufacture of spirits and liquors. 



In the second case, the country would not have 

 lost either ; since, the importation of spirits dimin- 

 ished, other articles would have profited, or general 



industry, and a large sum would not have to be sent 

 out of the country. 



But, in either case, the highest duty on the small- 

 est quantity would have given better results than 

 the system now followed. 



Thanks to this system, England, France, the 

 United States ? and Belgium, and all who follow it, 

 have no deficits. Moreover, this is urged by more 

 potent motives. The value of imports of wines, 

 spirits, and tobacco amounted in 1875 to $11,283,000. 

 This enormous sum has not contributed in the least 

 to the social wealth nor to induf.try ; while in ex- 

 change we have had to pay with the noble products 

 of our industry. We would understand this ex- 

 change if it were for machines, coal, instruments of 

 industry, useful values, or reproductive articles of 

 any kind ; but to exchange them for spirits, is not to 

 be tolerated. 



England, France, and the United States, conscious 

 of the impossibility of doing away with the use of 

 spirits and tobacco, determined to make social wel- 

 fare take advantage of it. To make spirits, products 

 of the soil are necessary, and, consequently, the man- 

 ufacture of spirits, being localized, would immensely 

 contribute to foment agriculture, and shut the door 

 against a foreign product that is of no use to so- 

 ciety. 



By this means the importation of spirits to the 

 United States is relatively insignificant, in France 

 nil, and in England does not figure for the third 

 part of the taxes paid by the local manufacturers, in 

 spite of the very high duties. We see how this alone 

 powerfully increases local industry and social wealth. 



Nearly all the spirits now imported can be made 

 in the Argentine Eepublic, benefiting agriculture, 

 and leaving their value in the country. Tucuman 

 and Saltahave excellent cafia. San Juan, Mendoza, 

 La Kioja, Catamarca, etc., have splendid wines ; 

 Cordoba and Santiago del Estero have their " algnr- 

 robas " to make aguardiente ; and Santa Fe" ; Entie- 

 Eios, Corrientes. and Buenos Ayres have their maize 

 and potatoes. Why should we, then, import them ? 

 Then, as is the case in all other countries, spirits of 

 home manufacture should be subject to a tax. 



Notwithstanding the vigorous opposition it 

 met with from all parties, the new national 

 stamp law was passed in October. It has been 

 described by an Argentine writer as " a most 

 important law, as it affects every one and ev- 

 erything, increasing the taxes on merchants 

 and steamboats very considerably ; in fine, the 

 most comprehensive act of the kind hitherto 

 known a kind of new income-tax, caused, no 

 doubt, by the depressed state of the revenue. 

 Merchants, lawyers, doctors, stevedores, light- 

 ermen, ship-brokers, surveyors, medical stu- 

 dents, clergymen, pilots, officers, judges, po- 

 licemen, in fact everybody, will have to lend a 

 small annual contribution to keep the ship of 

 the state from running high and dry. From 

 January 1, 1878, bills of exchange will have to 

 be stamped twice over, first by the province, 

 and secondly by the nation ; in fact our bills of 

 exchange will henceforward go home with as 

 many stamps as our hide with marks ; the grasp 

 of the new stamp act is almost universal." 



Popular education is making rapid strides 

 so rapid, that the Argentine Republic, which, 

 not many years ago, was behind its neighbors 

 in this respect, now surpasses all of them. 



The following table shows the attendance, in 

 1875, at the primary schools in the principal 

 countries of South America : 



