Sheep, the score, alive, into England.................... Sheep's skins, with the wool, the hundred containing six score..... Cat's skins, the hundred.. Soap, lard, Irish-making, 112 pounds.... Steel, 112 pounds........ ....................... .... £. S. D. 068 1 0 0 1 10 0 1 10 0 260 20 0 0 1 6 8 0 10 0 100 Hard wax, the pound...... Irish wool, into England, the stone containing 18 pounds.. Broadcloth, the piece containing thirty-six yards........... Kersies and other stuffs...................... For every pack of linen yarn containing four hundred weight at six Goods inwards and outwards, not rated, to pay five pounds. Coffee, the hundred weight. Drapery (woolen) from foreign ports, per yard.. All other stuffs of wool from England, per yard..... Thus discriminating in favor of the English manufacturers. White sugar, foreign, 112 lbs.. Refined, in England, 112 lbs..... Thus discriminating in favor of the English manufacturers. Tobacco, Spanish and Brazil, per pound............ Tobacco, from English plantations, per pound....... Tin of Cornwall and Devonshire, per hundred weight. The term, "free trade," is of very recent origin in Great Britain and Ireland, as appears from the following: "The rates of merchandise, that is to say, the subsidie of poundage, and the subsidy of tunnage, as they are rated in this book, to be paid to the use of his Majesty, his heirs and successors, forever."—(Statutes of Ireland, Vol. I, page 524.) Thus, in the reign of Charles II., import duties are called rates inwards and export duties are called rates outwards.-(Ib., page 524.) It will be seen that Ireland had to pay import and export duties for the benefit of the King of England. That the tariff laws and navigation acts were made to enrich the people of England and to impoverish the people of Ireland; yet some half-informed, but honest, people, are under a delusion as to the import of the term "free trade," as used and understood in the days of Grattan. The people of Ireland wanted export "free trade," the same as in the United States. The ruin of the Irish manufactures, trade and commerce caused the famine in Ireland in 1846-7-8-9-50. No patriotic independent Irishman should vote for the party that is hostile to the manufactures, trade and commerce of the United States. Thousands of Irishmen depend on labor and employment for their support. Every well-informed person knows that what is manufactured in foreign countries does not give employment to the workingmen of the United States. The Irish vote can defeat the free traders. The head of the Democratic party is in the solid South combined with the Cobden Club in London, England. Morrison, Carlisle, Cleveland and Mills follow the arguments of the Cobden Club. Daniel O'Connell and Smith O'Brien would not wear any clothing but what was of Irish manufacture. で CHAPTER VII. THE TARIFFS OF FOREIGN NATIONS. HE American free traders and anti-protectionists should learn something of the tariffs of foreign nations. Our neighbors to the north, the Canadians, in order to build up Canadian manufactures and other interests, enacted, some years ago, the Foster tariff, which discriminates, with the greatest stringency, against the United States. In Santo Domingo the revenue is principally from customs duties-the tariff is highly protective. (American Republics, page 207.) Guatemala has a high protective tariff. (American Republics, page 151.) The Republic of Honduras has a high protective tariff. There is an export duty on mahogany and cedar of eight dollars per thousand superficial feet, an export duty of two dollars per head on bulls and steers and sixteen dollars on cows. A vast amount of machinery and mining implements is admitted to the country duty free, with a view to encouraging the development of her mineral wealth. Import duties are calculated at so much per pound, according to the class, upon merchandise. For liquors the duty is sixteen cents per pound, and for spirits twenty-eight cents per pound. There is a government tax of two dollars per head on the sale of cattle, and a municipal tax of fifty cents on every animal slaughtered. The government of Honduras is supported exclusively by import duties. Our immediate neighbor south of the United States, the Republic of Mexico, has a high protective tariff. In 1891 a duty of $2.25 a head for American hogs and two dollars on cattle was imposed at the border. The The federal government is sustained by import duties, by the stamp tax, and by the federal contributions. The last boing an additional duty levied on all taxes collected by the states. It has, besides, other sources of revenue, such as export duties, the mint duties and duties on nationalized property. state governments are sustained by excise duties levied on all foreign and domestic merchandise, and by certain relatively small direct tax. The city governments are sustained by direct taxes, in some cases they receive also a percentage of the duties collected by the states. The following is from a letter from the Mexican minister, M. Romero, to the author, May 4, 1891: "The tariff laws of my country are highly protective. The national government levies in the federal district a land tax of two per cent upon rents, a portion of which belongs to the municipality, and I understand that the states levy also a small land tax." The following is from a Mexican traveler: "I was in a Mexican city two or three days ago, and saw him (an officer) collecting duties on everything that came into the town for sale. A donkeyload of grass paid a penny, and a peon with a dozen eggs had to stop and settle with the officer before he went in. I met an American dentist here who was practicing his trade in San Luis Potosi, and he told me something about professional taxes. Said he, I pay five dollars every two months to the government for the right to pull teeth and fill them, and every profession has to do likewise. The doctors pay the same as I do, and carpenters and masons are taxed. Carpenters in San Luis Potosi give a percentage of their wages to the government, and we have our federal tax, our state tax, and our town tax. The state taxes about twenty-five per cent of the amount of the federal taxes, and then there is a ten per cent tax, or about one-tenth of the amount of the federal, which goes to the state, and which is called material improvement tax. You have to pay your taxes before the fifteenth of every month, and if you don't pay them by that time there is a fine of six per cent of the amount of your taxes added to them, and if you keep on not paying, the officer will give you three days' notice and sell you out. 66 All goods brought into San Luis Potosi have to pay a state import duty, and if a man makes a saddle here in Monterey and sends it to me in San Luis I will have to pay a percentage on it before I get it. Mercantile drafts pay about one per cent tax on the amount for which they are made; and in short everything that I know of pays a tax except land." Lands are free from taxation, unless they are in cultivation. If you own 1,000 acres and cultivate 10, you pay a tax on the 10 and the other 990 go free. This is the great curse of Mexico, and it prevents the big estates being divided up and sold. There are men in Mexico who own over 100,000 acres, and I know of one or two who own 1,000,000. Still one of these men does not pay as much taxes as I do. He has to keep his accounts and let the government officials look them over and they tax him on his income from the land and not for the land itself. A few thousand men own all the land in Mexico, but these few are so influential that the government dares not impose a general tax upon the lands, and the states ought to regulate the matter. The Governor of Zacatecas thought he would begin it. He tried it, but was assassinated. Taxation in Mexico is altogether in favor of the rich instead of the poor. I know of great blocks of buildings which stand idle and pay no taxes because they are not rented. If a man lives in his house he has to pay a tax on it. If he has a tenant he pays a tax, but if he chooses to have no one in it he pays nothing. "Every carriage pays a tax and every theatre ticket and railroad ticket must have a stamp upon it. All men in business have to keep account, and each page of the day book and ledger must have a stamp. Tanneries pay fifty cents a month, soap factories in some parts of the country pay one dollar, and every billiard table pays a certain amount monthly. Pulque shops in the city of Mexico all pay taxes. The gambling houses bring in a big income and there are other houses more wicked which are also licensed. In some parts of the country you have to pay for the privilege of shipping things out of the country as well as for bringing them in. The Hon. David A. Wells secured a copy of the tariff guerrero in West Mexico and published it not long ago. This showed that horses, mules and cattle shipped out of Mexico paid one dollar a head. If they were taken out of the town into the country they had to pay a shilling a head. Every time a horse or a mule was taken out of the town twenty-five cents had to be paid, and for every beef hide taken out of the town three cents. In that city every man who received a salary of over one hundred and fifty dollars a year paid a shilling a month to the town; public officials had to pay one and a half per cent of their salaries to the town. All kinds of imports were taxed proportionally high, and every man over eighteen had to pay a poll tax of twelve cents a month." Cuba and Porto Rico have a protective tariff which discriminates against the United States. The other Spanish dependencies in the West Indies have high protective tariffs. Duty on flour in Cuba and Porto Rico is $5.83 per barrel, and the duty on wheat $3.15 per hundred weight. Reciprocity treaty has made a change in favor of the United States. The United States, Mexico, Central and South America have port charges. In Nicaragua the revenues are mostly derived from custom house duties and government monopolies on spirits, tobacco and gunpowder. It has a protective tariff. (American Republics, page 180.) Costa Rica has a protective tariff. The revenues are derived from custom duties, stamped paper, liquor and tobacco taxes, sale of lands, registration fees, etc. (American Republics, page 135.) In Salvador there is a protective tariff. The resources of the nation are derived principally from import duties and taxes on the articles of government monopoly. (American Republics, page 203.) The Republic of Colombia has a protective tariff. The duty on flour is $2.30 per hundred weight. (American Republics, page 120.) The revenue is mainly derived from custom duties. (American Republics, page 123.) Venezuela has a high protective tariff. The duty on flour and other breadstuffs is $2.21 per hundred gross weight. The duty on cornmeal is $6.63 per hundred weight. (American Republics, page 120.) Brazil has a protective tariff. Cotton drill, dyed blue, used by the laboring class as cotton clothing, which sold in New York City free on board the vessel at 9 cents per yard under the old treaty, after adding port charges in Brazil the total charges of duty were 90, or nearly 10 cents a yard. Under the present treaty, 25 per cent reduction is made. 91 Uruguay has a high protective tariff. The congress of Uruguay has increased the duty on breadstuffs to the following figures: Maize (corn), 80 cents per 100 kilos; wheat, $1.35 per 100 kilos; wheat flour, $2.70 per 100 kilos; clover and forage, $1 per 100 kilos. The revenue of Uruguay is mainly derived from custom duties, property or direct tax, licenses, stamps and stamped paper. (American Republics, 2d Ed. page 229.) The Argentine Republic has a protective tariff. page 37.) (American Republics, 2d Ed. The Republic of Chili has a high protective tariff. The public revenue is mainly derived from custom duties. (American Republics, 2d Ed. page 113.) The Republic of Ecuador has a protective tariff. More than half of the revenue it derives from custom duties. (American Republics, 2d Ed. page 145.) Peru has a protective tariff. The principal income was formerly derived from the sale of guano and from customs. There are two forms of direct taxation- -a poll tax for every man between the ages of twenty-one and sixty years, and a tax on the rent from real estate at the rate of three per cent. The revenue of 1890 was derived from custom duties, direct taxes, railways, postoffice, telegraphs and other miscellaneous receipts. (American Republics, 2d Ed. page 192.) The Republic of Paraguay has a protective tariff. The revenue is derived from custom duties, receipts from various sources, receipts from the sale of public lands and "yerbales." (American Republics, 2d Ed. page 186.) The government of the Hawaiian Islands has high custom duties on imports. The revenue is derived from custom duties, internal commerce, internal taxes, fines, fees, perquisites, government realization and receipts of bureaus, from loans and postal saving. (American Republics, 2d Ed. page 163.) In the British Bahamas islands, a dependency of Great Britain, the revenue is derived principally from custom duties. (American Republics, 2d Ed. page 256.) The colonial government of Barbadoes, a dependency of Great Britain, derives its revenue principally from custom duties. (American Republics, 2d Ed. page 257.) The colonial government of Bermudas, a dependency of Great Britain, derives its revenue principally from custom duties. (American Republics, 2d Ed. page 260.) The British colonial government of British Honduras derives its revenue principally from custom duties, excise licenses, land tax and the sale and lease of crown lands. (American Republics, 2d Ed. page 266) The colonial government of Jamaica levies import duties. (American Republics, 2d Ed. page 272.) The colonial government of Trinidad and Tobago levies import duties. (American Republics, 2d Ed. page 276.) The British colonial government of the Windward islands, a dependency of Great Britain, levies import duties. (American Republics, 2d Ed. page 280.) The colonial government of the Leeward islands, a dependency of Great Britain, in the West Indies, levies import duties. (American Republics, 2d Ed. page 274.) The Dutch colonial government of Curacao, comprising the islands of Curacao, Bonaire, Aruba, parts of San Martin, St. Eustache and Saba, a dependency of Holland, derives its revenue principally from export and import duties, and excise duties and some land and indirect taxes. (American Republics, 2d Ed. page 285.) Thus, it will be seen at a glance, that while the United States, under the tariff laws of 1883, had several articles of the production of the West Indies, Mexico, Central and South America on the free list, these countries had very high protective tariffs. The consequence was, that while the balance of trade between the United States and Europe was on the side of the United States, the balance of trade between the United States and the Latin republics was against the United States. This fact prompted Secretary Blaine to advocate his famous policy of reciprocity, which will open a new market with the Latin republics through the ports of Mobile, New Orleans and Galveston and by railroads running North and South, which will unite the South and West more closely in commercial union. This with the mineral and manufacturing enterprise of the "New South" will cement the Union forever. Though it is usual to reckon England as a free trade country, she has high custom duties on tea, tobacco, malt, hops, spirits and wines. Her other source of revenue is derived from stamp duties, property and income tax, land and assessed taxes, house duties, legacy and succession duty. Germany, Austria, Italy, France and Russia are manufacturing under high tariffs. Formerly the Russians bought their guns of Krupp, but now they make them themselves. Germany and Austria are now commercially hostile to Russia. Russia is enacting protective tariffs, which affect the manufacturing and mercantile interests of those countries. Commercial hostility cannot long precede a clash of arms. The manufacturers and the traders are the ruling elements in Germany and Austria. They mean to force Russia to recede from the protective system. Spain has a high protective tariff, and Portugal and Denmark have high tariffs. |