166 Tra,\sactw.\s of the American Ixstitute. 



In the wool inanufacture the excess over Great Britain is, in 

 woolen mills, twenty-five per cent ; in carpet and worsted mills, fifty- 

 eight per cent. Over France, Belgium, Prussia, and Austria, the 

 average excess is 100 per cent. 



In iron founderies and machinery building, the excess over J>ritish 

 wages is fifty-eight per cent. 



In the manufacture of iron, the average weekly wages paid to pud- 

 dlers (in gold) are S1G.24 in the United States; §8.75 in England;: 

 $8 in France; $0 in Belgium ; $1.39 in Russia. 



In reference to the inequality that exists in the rates of local taxa-. 

 tion, the same statistician thus reports : 



''If we select, as an example, the cotton manufacture in Great Brit- 

 ain and the United States respectively, we find that in the former 

 country the incidence of all local or other direct' taxation extends 

 only to the rental value of the buildings for the reception of 

 machinery or the promotion of other details of the business ; and 

 does not in any way, regard the value of the machinery which 

 may be placed in such buildings, or the capital employed in its 

 workings. 



" On the other hand, in the United States, the incidence of local 

 taxation falls on everything connected with the business of cotton 

 manufacture that is accessible, namely, buildings, land, and 

 machinery ; and is, moreover, not unfrequently duplicated in the 

 following manner: Thus, factories are often built in this country 

 under acts of incorporation in one State, while the stock is held or 

 owned chiefly in other States. The municipality in which the fac- 

 tory is located taxes the buildings and machinery, and collects the 

 tax of the corporation ; the municipality, on the other hand, in 

 which the stockholder resides, taxes the stock to him at its market 

 value as personal property, and leaving the owner no remedy. . In 

 one instance (not an exceptional one) brought to the notice of the 

 Commissioner, the aggregate of tlie local taxes imposed on a particu- 

 lar corporation in 1866 amounted to 4 0-10 per cent upon the capi- 

 tal invested, and in 1868 to over four per cent. 



" But, vicious as this system is upon its face, its efi'ect, especially 

 in a national point of view, cannot be realized until we take into 

 consideration the fact that the capital required in the United States 

 to build a cotton-mill is about double the amount required for a simi- 

 lar purpose in Great Britain. Four per cent, therefore, on the capi- 

 tal of a cotton-mill in the United States represents eight per cent on 



