The higher the duty in comparison with the value of the commodity, the less consumers benefit by a fall in price of that commodity. Where is the consumer who knows of any fluctuations in the price of salt, for instance? He does not even know when the price of coffee goes down. Yet, if the reduction of duty is noticeable, he benefits by it immediately.

From 1875 to 1879, the consumption of sugar was on an average about 270,000 tons raw sugar. In July, 1880, the duty was reduced from 73 fr. 32 to 40 fr. The result was as follows:

Re

From 1879 to 1883 the price of raw sugar fell from 54 fr. 16 to 51 fr. 80-2.36 fr. or 4.12 per cent. fined sugar fell from 141 fr. 31 to 104 fr. 60=36 fr. 71, or more than 25 per cent. We find, therefore, that the decline in the price of refined has been proportionately much greater than the fall in the price of raw sugar.

This is something to which we earnestly call the reader's attention, for it is one of the elements of the conclusion which we are trying to demonstrate.

In 1884, by the law of that year, the duty was increased to 50 fr. If we refer to the table (2nd part, chap. VIII), we find that the consumption did not increase any more, yet the price of sugar has been steadily declining.

Price raw sugar.

Refined sugar.

The decline of the price of raw sugar amounts to 38 per cent. Refined sugar, which has carried the increase of duty from 40 fr. to 50 fr., has only declined 9 per cent. in price; and the consumption remained stationary.

XIV.

Home Consumption and Tax Reduction.

I KNOW that growers of beetroot and sugar dealers look upon those who warn them of impending danger as enemies. They cannot, however, regard M. Dehérain* as their adversary; yet he declares that "bounties are only a palliative, for we cannot possibly ask the French taxpayers to pay much longer for a commodity consumed abroad."t

M. Convert says: "The present régime is far from being perfect in its political as well as in its theoretical aspect. It is only reasonable to say that nobody is blind. to it shosrtcomings."||

In his speech, which he delivered in October, 1899,

* Member of the Academy of Sciences, Professor at the Natural History Museum.

† Les Plantes de Culture.

Professor at the National Institute of Agriculture.
L'Industrie agricole.

M. Legras, the Chairman of the Comité Agricole de Laon, declared that the reduction of duty on sugar would benefit the beetroot agriculturists, and that it was the solution of the future. "The interest of the beetroot farmers is in close relation with the interests of the sugar industry. Therefore we will all of us ask for the suppression of the sugar duty, which is more than twice as much as the price of the commodity, and which weighs very heavily on the sale and the consumption. If the duty were abolished, consumption and sales would increase; the sugar industry, freed from all obstacles, would go its natural course, and without aid or without artificial protection would assure a bright future to the beetroot growers.

And the "Journal des Fabricants de Sucre" added: "All this proves that the idea of reducing the taxes is spreading among beetroot growers. It is well to take a note of it."

All far-seeing men realize that the present situation cannot last.

If the French consumer does not rise up in arms against the overcharge to which he is subjected, it is because he does not realize it; but the Minister of Finances knows well enough what the premiums cost. The sugar manufacturers keep up production and see their outlets grow scarcer; they seek, by debasing the quality of their sugar, to let it serve as food for cattle. Would it not be better to have it consumed by human beings, or by jam, biscuit, and chocolate manufacturers, who, though they get the "draw-back," do not get the benefit of the premiums which we bestow upon the English?

We have been and we are still in favour of the following formula: "A duty equal to the value of the product. This means the home-consumption duty reduced from 60 fr. to 30 fr., and the refining tax of 4 fr. abolished. There lies the solution.

For, besides the consumption duty, sugars bear: either 4 fr. per 100 kilog. refining tax if consumed in the refined state, or 1 fr. per 100 kilog. manufacturing tax if consumed in the raw state. The revenue from the taxes does not go to the Treasury, as these taxes go to a special account out of which export premiums and the détaxes de distance are paid. În accordance with the law of April 7th, 1897, a balance sheet of that special account is published every year in a report preceding the decree which regulates the various premiums for the ensuing year. The following table gives the totals of receipts and expenditure since the bill became law, until the end of the season 1899-1900.

By abolishing the premiums the Government would at once save the large amount which the season 18991900 has cost it.

We shall be told that these sums are not included in the Budget, that they are not exacted from the taxpayer as other fiscal burdens. Quite true; but does not the French citizen pay it all the same? Is not the taxpayer and the consumer the same person, and is not this taxpayer and this consumer what is called the public? The system of bounties constitutes a tax which devours itself for the benefit of the manufacturer, to the detriment of the

Treasury. In 1886-87, the premiums, including the déchet colonial, amounted to 91,715,000 fr., in 1898-99, they were 90,200,810 fr., and, as we have just now seen, during the year 1899-1900, bounties, premiums, and détaxes, rose to 103,336,225 fr.

Let us now study the various sources from which duty was derived in 1899. The figures are given by the Bulletin de statistique, of March 1900:

The above figures do not include duty on glucose and starch. Provisional accounts arrived at in March, 1900, gave for the year 1899 a total duty on sugar of 201,089,000 francs, but the actual amount, as we shall see further, was 200,626,000 francs. 447,615,195 kilog. therefore have yielded a net sum of 196,425,505 francs, or an average of 43 fr. 88 per 100 kilog. of refined sugar. It will, however, be seen at once how considerably the revenue from the duty varies according to the proportional quantity of indemnified sugar, charged 30 fr. instead of 60 fr. It is thus, that in 1900, when the surplus yields were greater than in 1899, the total revenue from the duty—though the consumption remained apparently the same-only reached 183,682,345 francs, as will be seen in the table on page 86, a reduction of 16,944,489 francs on the year 1899.