422 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IV., No. 91; 



sippi, and other states. The early loans made 

 through Dr. Franklin, John Adams, etc., in 

 France and Holland, from 1776 to 1795, are 

 dwelt upon minutely ; and the transactions of 

 Beaumarchais, the financier, author, and pub- 

 lisher, are related at some length. Statisti- 

 cally, the presentation of debt, aggregate 

 wealth, and taxation, is more complete by far 

 than was ever made before for the United 

 States ; and, when these statistics are viewed in 

 the perspective of past histoiy, the} 7 confirm 

 the wonderful economic resources of a demo- 

 cratic republic like ours. They show that no 

 amount of debt hitherto imposed has prevented 

 the country from increasing rapidly in wealth 

 and financial power, although there are local 

 debts which may remain unpaid for a long 

 time ; and that the aggregate debt of the coun- 

 try is now fast decreasing, while the aggregate 

 wealth is gaining more rapidly than ever. 

 That such should be the case so soon after the 

 most costly and desolating civil war known to 

 modern history, is remarkable ; but there can 

 be no other interpretation of the figures pre- 

 sented in this volume. 



In round numbers, the aggregate wealth of 

 the United States in 1880, was, by careful 

 estimate, $43,600,000,000, of which not quite 

 $.17,000,000,000 was that year assessed for 

 taxation. This is between two and three 

 times as much as was the aggregate wealth in 

 1860, which did not much exceed $16,000,000,- 

 000, or less than the taxed valuation of 1880. 

 The aggregate debt of the countoy in 1880 was 

 a little less than $3,000,000,000, or between 

 six and seven per cent of the estimated wealth. 

 Of this debt, the national government was 

 responsible for $1,942,000,000; the separate 

 states, counties, cities, etc., for $1,048,000,- 

 000. This was the net indebtedness, which 

 had in 1880 been decreasing for some 3'ears, 

 and has since diminished by at least $400,- 

 000,000 in the aggregate ; so that we probably 

 shall enter the }'ear 1885 with a net debt of 

 about $2,500,000,000, while our population 

 has increased from 50,000,000 in 1880 to 

 58,000,000, and our wealth to at least $50,- 

 000,000,000. The taxation for state and 

 local purposes upon the valuation of 1880 was 

 about $302,000,000, while the national ex- 

 penditure drawn from imposts and excise was 

 not far from the same sum. This would be 

 an aggregate taxation of less than fourteen 

 dollars a thousand, which is considerably less 

 than the} 7 are taxed in Massachusetts, where 

 even the state and municipal taxes often amount 

 to more than that. The per capita distribu- 

 tion of local taxation in different sections 



of the country is curious ; being highest in 

 California ($14.60), in Nevada ($14), and 

 in Massachusetts ($13.64), while in the two 

 Carolinas it is only about $1.50, and in Ala- 

 bama $1.63. Of course this high per capita 

 tax implies great wealth in the community 

 and consequently the richest states have the 

 largest percentage of local taxation, consid- 

 ered with regard to the individual tax-payers. 

 Thus Massachusetts, with an assessed valua- 

 tion of nearly $1,585,000,000, and a popu- 

 lation of less than 1,800,000, in 1880, raised 

 that year nearly $24,500,000 of local tax, be- 

 sides what she paid into the national treas- 

 ury ; while Texas, with a population nearly 

 as great as that of Massachusetts, but with 

 a valuation of propert} 7 less than a third part 

 as large, raised by taxation only $4,568,716, 

 or less than a fifth of the Massachusetts taxa- 

 tion. Yet the Texans probably feel their light 

 taxes more than the people of Massachusetts- 

 feel their heavy burdens. 



For a similar reason the debt of a state is 

 often, perhaps almost always, largest where 

 property most abounds to pay the debt with. 

 This does not hold true of all the southern 

 states, some of which have incurred great 

 debts that bear no proportion to the property 

 of the tax-pa3 7 ers. Thus Louisiana, with 

 a population of 940,000, and an estimated 

 wealth of $422,000,000, had a debt of $42,- 

 866,000 ; while Wisconsin, with a population 

 of 1,316,000, and wealth estimated at $969,- 

 000,000, had only $11,876,000 of debt. Vir- 

 ginia's estimated wealth was, in 1880, $693,- 

 000,000, and Connecticut's, $852,000,000 ; yet 

 the latter had only $22,000,000 of debt, while 

 Virginia had $42,000,000. In these statistics 

 we include both the state debt, and the debts 

 of counties, cities, etc., within each state ; and 

 we give the net indebtedness after allowing 

 for sinking-funds, etc. The three states of 

 largest estimated wealth (New York, Pennsyl- 

 vania, and Massachusetts) had then the largest 

 debts,— New York, $218,723,000; Pennsyl- 

 vania, $106,133,000 ; and Massachusetts, $91,- 

 284,000. These amounts seem vast, and are 

 so ; yet Massachusetts had $30 of wealth for 

 every dollar of debt, New York $35, and 

 Pennsylvania more than $50. It is curious 

 to observe, however, to what a great and vary- 

 ing extent this wealth escapes taxation ; for, 

 while more than half of Massachusetts's prop- 

 erty (57 %) is taxed, only a little more than 

 one-third is taxed in New York (34.8 %), and 

 in Pennsylvania less than one-third (31.2%). 

 The New-England states generally tax prop- 

 erty more closely than the other states, the 



