< Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 29.djvu
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AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO.

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for obtaining revenue through the taxation of articles of domestic consumption, either in the processes of production, or through the machinery of distribution, is of necessity very narrow; and that if the state is to get anything, either directly or indirectly, from this source, there would really seem to be hardly any method open to it, other than that of an infinitesimal, inquisitorial system of assessment and obstruction, akin to what is already in existence.[1]

Note. This curious tax experience of Mexico, although especially striking and interesting, is not exceptional, but finds a parallel, in a greater or less degree, in all countries of low civilization, small accumulation of wealth, and sluggish society movement. Thus, in the British island and colony of Jamaica, populated mainly by emancipated blacks and their descendants (554,132 out of a total of 580,804 in 1881), who own little or no land, and through favorable climatic conditions require the minimum of clothing and shelter, and little of food other than what is produced spontaneously, or by very little labor, the problem of how to raise revenue by any form of taxation, for defraying the necessary expenses of government, has been not a little embarrassing. For the year 1884, the revenue raised from taxation on this island represented an average assessment of about $3.40 per head of the entire population; but of this amount an average of about fifty cents only per head could be obtained from any excise or internal taxation; and this mainly through the indirect agency of licenses and stamps, and not by any direct assessment. The balance of receipts was derived from import and export duties, and from special duties on rum, which last furnished nearly one fourth of the entire revenue. During the same year the average taxation of the people of the United States Federal, State, and municipal was in excess of fourteen dollars per capita. A condition of things in British India, analogous to that existing in Jamaica, has for many years necessitated the imposition of very high taxes upon salt, as almost the only method by which the mass of the native population could be compelled to contribute anything whatever toward the support of their government; the consumption of salt being necessary to all, and its production and distribution being capable of control, and so of comparatively easy assessment. In short, if a man can avoid paying rent, make no accumulations, and will live exclusively on what he can himself gather from the bounty of Nature, he can not be taxed, except by a capitation or poll-tax; and it would be difficult to see how in such a case even such a tax could be collected. But, the moment he enters into society and recognizes the advantages of the division of labor and exchange, he begins to pay taxes, and the higher the civilization he enjoys the greater will be the taxes.

But the greatest obstacle in the way of tax reform in Mexico is to be found in the fact that a comparatively few people not ten thousand out of a possible ten million—own all the land, and constitute, in the main, the governing class of the country; and the influence of this class has thus far been sufficiently potent to practically exempt land from taxation. So long as this condition of things prevails, it is difficult to see how there is ever going to be a middle class (as there is none now worthy of mention), occupying a position intermediate between the rich and a vast ignorant lower class, that take no interest in public affairs, and are only kept from turbulence through military restraint. Such a class, in every truly civilized and progressive coun-

  1. ↑ The experience of Mexico in respect to taxation ought to be especially instructive to all that large class of statesmen and law-makers in the United States who believe that the only equitable system of taxation is to provide for an obligatory return and assessment of all property, and that to exempt anything is both unjust and impolitic.
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