50 
TJrdahl—Historical Survey of Fee Systems. 
goods. ” The expense of these, as well as that of “ institutions 
for education and religious instruction, may without injustice and 
with some advantage be defrayed by such particular members of 
society as are most benefited by them. ” 
It is, therefore, clear that Adam Smith saw at the very out¬ 
set a plain distinction between taxes in the narrower sense, and 
payments such as fees, tolls, court costs, and charges, which 
may be called by the general term “fees.” 
But this distinction between taxes and fees recognized by Adam 
Smith, was entirely unnoticed by Ricardo, Mill, and the other 
English economists succeeding him. Not until the doctrine of 
Smith had reached the Continent and been elaborated by the 
great German representative of his views, do we find the slight¬ 
est trace of the difference which he himself but faintly outlined. 
A German writer, Rau, 1 is the first to really put fees into a 
category distinct from taxes. The cameralist Justi, 2 who 
wrote at about the same time as Adam Smith, classified public 
revenues into (1) Domain, (2) Regalia, (3) Taxes, (4) Casual rev¬ 
enues. The latter included prices and payments for special 
privileges. Rau also divided the public revenues into four 
classes; domains, regalia, taxes, and fees: and defines fees (Ge- 
buhreri) in such a way, as to include many of the payments 
classed by Justi in the fourth category. 
Since the time of these authors no two economists have suc¬ 
ceeded in agreeing as to definition or content of this subject. 
The existence of such a category seems with one or two excep¬ 
tions to be generally accepted by economic authorities. The 
earlier writers generally treated fees partly as miscellaneous 
or casual revenues and partly, also, as direct taxes. Although 
Rau does not have the honor of being the first to recognize the 
separate category, as has been asserted by some writers, he 
was the first to apply the name Gebuhren to this category. 
He defined Gebuhren , that is, “fees,” as “payments made on 
occasions when the individual citizen comes in a special manner 
into contact with a state institution or state court.” 3 Stein, in 
1 Allgemeine Steuerlehre , I, §§ 86, 227. 
2 Finanzwissenschaft. 
3 Rau, Finanzwissenschaft , I, 312. 
