The tobacco of the district of Bethune has a better appearance than that from the districts of St. Pol and Montreuil: but they are not perfectly adapted either to the making of snuff or of smoking tobacco; it has not enough body for the first, and too much for the second; notwithstanding which the régie employs it for making smoking tobacco, for the reason that the greatest part of the tobacco from the other departments is still less proper for that manufacture. Department du Bas Rhine.-The districts of Strasbourg and of Schelestadt are the only ones in which the cultivation of tobacco is authorized for the service of the régie. Although, compared with the other native tobacco, that of the department of the Bas Rhine is of an inferior quality in consequence of its rather disagreeable taste, one must say, however, that the best quality of its leaves, viz: those of the first and second qualities, in consequence of their lightness of color, are employed to some advantage in the manufacture of common smoking tobacco when admitted to a certain extent. Under this head this tobacco is useful to the régie; and on the other hand the leaves of the low qualities are indispensable for the manufacturing of tobacco de Cantine, which the régie makes at Strasbourg for supplying the departments of the eastern frontier; these leaves are consequently employed on the spot, and their place could not be supplied. except at a heavy expense of transportation. The régie has distributed in all these departments, at different periods, American, Dutch, and Levant seeds, but they have not succeeded; and, generally, they continue to use seeds gathered in the department, or in the neighboring ones, or to change from commune to commune. A planter in the privileged departments, who wishes to cultivate tobacco, must first obtain a permission in which is stated the number of plants he is permitted to cultivate on a hectare of land, say 30,000 plants, and he is not subject to any penalty in case he plants one-fifth less or one-fifth more on a hectare; but he would be subject to a penalty if he planted less than 24,000, or more than 36,000 plants on a hectare of land. In a report made by the régie to the Government it is said that the nature of the French soil, and that of the climate, will never permit them to hope that the native tobacco can take the place of foreign tobacco. The distance between each plant is regulated by the régie; the maximum is one métre between each plant, or 10,000 plants per hectare; and the minimum 40,000 plants, according to the localities. By the law of April 28, 1816, the régie had to employ five-sixths of native tobacco in its manufactures; but by the law of 12th February, 1835, it was obliged to employ four-fifths at the extent of native tobacco; it consequently demanded from the cultivator only 10,000,000 kilogrammes of the crop of 1836. The cultivation was at the same time suppressed in the departments of the Var and of the Bouches du Rhone. Previous to granting the permission to cultivate, the régie makes known the price at which the tobacco must be delivered to it; the leaves of a lower quality than that classed as not merchantable are destroyed on the spot. The inspectors of tobacco are named by the prefect of the department; none are named by the planters. The guard-magazine and the controller of each magazine are included among the inspectors. The régie has never been enabled to prevent smuggling, which is carried on to a great extent by men, women, and children, and even by the means of animals trained expressly for that purpose. The destruction of the lower quality of the leaves has frequently been resisted, and has even occasioned bloodshed. The following is the result of an average year of the five crops of 1830, 1831, 1832, 1833, and 1834, for the eight departments: Quantity demanded by the régie, 28,710,000 lbs. ; quantity delivered into their magazines, 27,448,573 lbs.; for whieh the regié paid $1,734,823. The average price per 100 kilogrammes, 76 francs 18 centimes = $6 35 per 100 lbs. The number of planters, 22,797; quantity of hectares cultivated, 9,874; average produce per hectare, 2,779 lbs., averaging per hectare, $175 77; average amount for each planter, $76 09; average number of plants, 202,400,866; average number of leaves, 1,771,720,222. The service of watching over the cultivation is encharged with seeing that the regulations established each year by the prefects and council of the prefecture are strictly executed. For this purpose, it is necessary to verify the planting-and afterward the plantations made, in virtue of the permission, are conformable to the conditions determined on-and that they do not exceed the prescribed limits. It has to seek out, wh the most scrupulous attention, the plantations which have not been authorized, and to destroy them; to take care that those plants which have reached a certain point are trimmed with regularity; to establish, by means of two operations, first, the number of the plants, and, secondly, the number of leaves; to take cognition of all the damage which has happened to the plantation, so as to furnish to the planter the necessary discharge to which he has a right under such circumstances; to prevent the use of the leaves of aftergrowth, by pulling up, immediately after the gathering of the crop, the stems and roots of the plant: in fact, to watch over until the delivery, and during all the time that the tobacco remains with the planter, and prevent any abuse which might otherwise happen by the tobacco being with the planter. The officers of the special service have also to assist at the reception of the declarations of cultivation, and to take part in the necessary writings which arise therefrom. They furnish, for the reception or rejection of these declarations by the competent authority, the information which their operations have enabled them to acquire, and which are noted in a book, in which they write the results of their visits to the planters. They are especially encharged with the advising the planters respecting the necessary ameliorations in the cultivation and drying of their tobacco. At the period of the delivery of the tobacco, a part of these officers assist in the counting of the leaves, while others watch over the transportation of the tobacco from the domicil of the planter to the place where the delivery is made; and others make the necessary visits, to be certain that the tobacco to be delivered has been properly prepared, and the planter who has finished the delivery of his crop has not preserved to himsel some portion of it. In the six departments where the cultivation of tobacco is permitted, the special service is under the direction of an inspector-chief of the service, who is encharged also with the surveillance of the magazine for the leaves. This inspector directs the comptrollers, who are encharged under him with the direction of the officers attached to the jurisdiction of each magazine, and he visits the different parts of the country, to watch over the operations. Since a few years, the régie treats for the foreign tobacco with but one seller for each quality of leaves; or, more properly speaking, concludes its arrangements with but one seller. The regié produces the samples of such qualities as it wishes to purchase, and the seller has to furnish precisely the same quality within the year. The several conditions are established in a cahier de charges, and are approved by the minister of finance. The régie has acknowledged, in one of its reports, that the re-exportation to foreign markets from France, of tobacco brought into the French entrepots, is extremely detrimental to the sale of the same, as they have been charged with the expenses in France, where the duty of magazinage is much higher than any where else, which, consequently, is very unfavorable to speculations; and, also, there is the expense of a double freight. "It is likewise to be observed," says the régie, and very truly, "that the importations into France never having much exceeded the wants of the régie, the foreign tobacco re-exported goes to a new market under the most unfavorable circumstances, it being considered as merchandise rejected by the régie." A few years since, my much-esteemed friend, the learned and practical Dr. Bowring, and Sir Henry Parnell, having been consulted by the French Government respecting the best system to be followed by France in regard to tobacco, gave as their opinion that the cultivation of tobacco in France should be interdicted; and that France, consequently, finding itself under the necessity of getting its supplies from America, would open to itself new markets, and commerce would multiply the exchanges of industry; and that, if some supposed advantages should be lost to the agricultural interests, French industry in general would be a gainer. They further say that the actual method of levying the imposts on tobacco occasions great abuses; and the excessive severity of the officers of the fisc, necessitated by the numerous attempts at fraud, occasions innumerable vexations, and becomes a permanent cause of irritation. To preserve this expensive method, and at the same time to do away with the obstacles, the abuses, and the vexations attending it, would, they think, be a ridiculous pretension. The reform which those gentlemen proposed was, to put a duty on entry on foreign tobacco equal to the amount of the actual total impost, and place the collection of the same into the hands of the customs, granting free liberty of manufacture and sale without any impediment, and to suppress the administration of the excise. Those gentlemen finished their memorial by recommending the greatest prudence in fixing the amount of the duty, in case the system they recommend should be adopted, as a custom-house law which should establish too high duties would open a vast field to bad faith and to fraud, ruining those who respect it, and opposes itself to the development of commerce; while, on the other hand, a moderate duty is of an easy and cheap collection, and the commerce which does not seek to free itself from it takes a greater extension, and definitively a moderate duty produces more revenue than a high one. The retailing of tobacco is made by persons authorized by the régie. The following will show the net benefit derived from the régie to the French treasury from 1811 to 1835, inclusive: According to an official statement the net benefit was - 1,011,299,757 The advances made by the treasury, on the establishment 69,000,000 of the exclusive system, were as follows: A loan to the caisse de service Amount of the guarantee (cautionnements) - 35,662,190 Sum total for which the régie has to account, francs The payments into the treasury by the régie have been to the inventory of 31st December, 1835 - 57,945,215 104,662,190 1,115,961,947 1,058,298,508 Average amount of benefit for one year, francs 281,776 57,663,439 francs 1,115,961,947 44,638,478 $8,332,515 But to the above amount should be added the losses of the régie in consequence of the invasion, and of which no mention is made in the above statement. Tobacco demanded or abandoned Houses and utensils 19,500,000 1,500,000 The régie has likewise delivered up to the administration des domains sundry buildings, valued at about On the other hand, there should be deducted for the expenses of former balances, and which do not figure in the In 1837, the monopoly of tobacco produced to the French treasury a profit of 59,000,000 francs, equal to $11,013,333, being 3,400,000 franes more than in 1836. The profits gained by the 25,852 authorized retailers amounted to 11,809,773 francs, equal to $2,204,490. It has been calculated that, as the population at the end of 1836 amounted to 33,331,021 souls, the annual consumption of snuff for each individual was about 64 ounces, and of smoking tobacco 8 ounces. REMARKS. By the aforegoing report it will be observed that, of thirty-six states in Europe, there is in twenty-four of them perfect freedom of competition in every species of industry exercised in the article of tobacco. Those twenty-four states are, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Russia, Bremen, Hamburg, Lubec, Brunswick, the two Mecklenburgs, (Schwerin and Strelitz,) Holland, Belgium, Prussia, Baden, Wurtemberg, Bavaria, grand dutchy of Hesse, Nassau, electorate of Hesse, Saxony, Hanover, Switzerland, (with the exception of the canton of Valais,) England, and Hungary. Of these twenty-four states, there are twenty where the cultivation, the manufacture, and the sale of tobacco enjoy absolute liberty, that is to say, without any special control or restrictions, only in some of those twenty states the manufacture, &c., is subject to a patent tax, common to all industry; and of the other four States, viz: Prussia, electorate of Hesse, kingdom of Saxony, and England, the first three have subjected the cultivation to a tax on the land under cultivation, and the last named not only absolutely interdicts the cultivation, but subjects the manufacture and the sale to severe and innumerable formalities, restrictions, and inspections, and to a special tax of license, manufacture, and sale. But it may be said that, in all these twenty-four states, the importation and exportation of tobacco are open to any one on paying a duty of entry and of exportation. The following states have adopted the system of monopoly, or of a state régie, viz: Sardinia, in its continental states and in the island of Sardinia, Spain, Roman states, France, and Austria, (with the exception of Hungary,) and in Parma. In three of those states, viz: in Spain, Parma, and the continental states of Sardinia, the cultivation is absolutely interdicted; but in the others, viz: in France, the island of Sardinia, the Roman states, and Austria, the cultivation is only restrained. But, in all the seven above-mentioned states, the manufacture, the sale, and the importation are absolutely interdicted to individual enterprise. The following states have adopted the system of farming the tobacco, (monopoly,) viz: Portugal, Naples, Tuscany, Poland, and the canton of Valais, in Switzerland. In two of those states, viz: Tuscany and Portugal, the cultivation is absolutely interdicted; in Naples it is restrained; in Poland it is free, but under some conditions, and probably it may be considered in fact as restrained; and in the canton of Valais the cultivation is interdicted to individuals, but permitted to the farm and in all these five states the manufacture and sale of tobacco, and also the importation, are absolutely interdicted, except to the farm. The system of imposts is thus regulated : In the states of free competition it consists for almost all of them in the amount of the duty of importation and the tax of patent, and for others |