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carry lighter stocks, for the simple reason that the increased duties and warehouse taxes will increase the cost of goods to just that extent, with a consequent increase in the amount of capital tied up in stock. Of course these increased taxes will be met by either an increase in the prices on goods or an equivalent decrease in the quality of the goods. In either case the consumer will pay the tax and suffer the hardships. The loss to the mercantile classes will spring from the restrictions upon business and decreased consumption. These are simply the elementary factors in this problem of taxation, but they seem to be as yet but little understood in parliament and in the Government. They have yet to learn the mysterious workings of a tax upon middlemen. In the matter of the reduction in the export taxes on coffee, sugar, cotton, and maté, the step is one in the right direction, and should be hailed with pleasure. After the 9th the general export tax on coffee will be 7 instead of 9 per cent., the provincial tax of 4 per cent. remaining unchanged.

EXPORT DUTIES OF BRAZIL.

REPORT BY CONSUL-GENERAL ANDREWS.

In compliance with the Department's circular letter of 15th February last, received April 11, I now beg to inclose a table of the export duties of Brazil.

The peculiarity of these duties is that they are levied by each of the twenty separate provinces of Brazil as well as by the Imperial Government. I began the collection of the information necessary for this table in April, but soon found that it would be necessary for me to write to the different consular officers of the United States in Brazil to ascertain the duties levied by their respective provinces. This naturally has occasioned delay; and in respect to two consular agencies I have as yet received no reply whatever. Perhaps I might properly repeat here the remark of the consul at Pernambuco, writing me under date of the 25th instant, in regard to certain agencies subordinate to his consulate. He says:

The fact is that these agencies are so poorly paid that the holders do not care to keep them, or rather will not trouble themselves.

As also the United States have consular officers in only thirteen of the twenty provinces of Brazil, and as the rate of provincial duties could not be furnished me at the department of finance, it has been with no little trouble that I have procured full information except as to two rather unimportant provinces.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE IMPERIAL AND PROVINCIAL EXPORT DUTIES OF BRAZIL; ALSO NAMES; LATITUDE, AND LEADING EXPORTS OF THE DIFFERENT PROVINCES.

Imperial duties.-As will be seen by the accompanying table, the rate of export duties collected for the empire is 9 per cent. ad valorem on ten different articles, including Brazil nuts, Brazil wood, cacao, hides, rubber, spirits, and tobacco; 7 per cent. on coffee, wool, and matté-tea, and 5 per cent. on most of the other important exports, including flour of mandioca, from which tapioca is largely produced.

Provincial duties.-Every province of Brazil, whether maritime or interior, collects a separate duty of generally about 4 or 5 per cent. on its exports, and in some instances, as will be seen further along, a municipal tax is added. Indirect taxation is the popular system of raising revenue in this country. There is no direct taxation of land. The tax is collected on the products of the land when they are exported.

The constitutional right of the provinces to levy export taxes appears to be recognized. On the other hand, it is not considered constitutional for them to levy import taxes, though they attempted unsuccessfully to do so a year or two ago.

The imperial and provincial export duties together, in some respects, constitute a heavy tax on goods exported to the United States. It is true the bulk of the coffee exported from Brazil to the United States goes from this port [Rio], and the export duty on such is 7 per cent. for the empire and 4 per cent. for the province, in all, 11 per cent. The same rates of duty are collected on what is sent from the next largest coffee-shipping port, Santos, province of San Paulo. Considerable coffee is also exported from Bahia and Ceará, and as the export tax thereon for each province is 7 per cent., the full rate, including the imperial tax, is 14 per cent. on coffee exported from those provinces. So, on the article of rubber, which is principally exported from the two provinces of Amazonas and Grão Pará, there is laid in the first-mentioned province a provincial tax of 12 per cent., and in the last-mentioned province a provincial export tax of 13 per cent., to each of which must be added the imperial rate of 9 per cent.

PROVINCES.

Alagoas.-Latitude, 9° to 10° south. Exports, cotton, sugar, and hides. Amount of provincial export duties per year, $155,700. The total amount of duties in respect to this and the tollowing provinces should be understood as the amount of provincial export duties for the latest year reported, the returns not being all for the same year.

Amazonas. Latitude, from 5° north to 100 south of equator. Principal exports, rubber, cacao, Brazil nuts, and medicinal plants. In addition to provisional export tax is a municipal tax of 2 per cent. on all exports. Annual amount of provincial export duties, $421,992.

18°

Bahia.-Latitude, 10° to 180 south. Principal exports, sugar, coffee, pi assava or broom fiber, cacao, hides, diamonds, tobacco, Brazil wood, spirits.

Ceará. Latitude, 3° to 8° south. Principal exports cotton, coffee, sugar, hides, horns, rubber, spirits. There is an additional municipal export tax of 4 cents on each hide and 28 cents on each 100 pounds of rubber. Annual amount of duties, $117,600.

Espirito Santo.-Latitude, 18° to 21° south. Principal exports, coffee, sugar, lumber. The provincial export duty of this province on coffee is at the rate of 17 reis per hilo, amounting to, say, 42 cents per bag. On sugar, 10 reis per hilo, being about 20 cents per 100 pounds. On rosewood 84 cents per log, and 42 cents per piece for smaller dimensions. For naval timber, $4.20 per mast and 42 cents per plank. Annual duties, $86,868.

Goyaz.-Latitude, from 60 to 19° south. Large interior province. Principal exports, products of stock-raising and Brazil wood. Export duty on products of agriculture is 5 per cent.; on tobacco about 1 cent per pound. Annual duties, $33,147.

Grão Pará.-Latitude, 30 north to 9° south of equator. Principal exports, rubber, sugar, cacao, Brazil nuts, hides, and Peruvian bark. There is an additional municipal export duty of 5 reis per hilo on rubber, or, say, 10 cents per 100 pounds. Also there is a provincial export duty of $4 per head on cattle. The export duty on Peruviau bark, if any, was not reported. Annual amount of duties, $723,216.

Maranham.-Latitude,1° to 9° south. Principal exports, cotton, sugar, hides, balsam copaiba. Annual duties, $78,834.

Matto Grosso.-Latitude, 9° to 23 south. Very large inland province on south western frontier. Principal export is wool. Annual duties, $14,668.

Minas Geraes.-Latitude, 14° to 21° south. Principal exports, coffee, cotton, tobacco, and cattle. The 4 per cent. duty on coffee is collected at the railway and other depots of transportation. The provincial export duty on other products and goods varies from 3 to 6 per cent. Annual amount of duties, $539,700.

Parahyba.-Latitude, 640 to 70 south. Exports, cotton, sugar, and hides, considerable of which is through Pernambuco. Amount of duties, $106,388.

Paraná.-Latitude, 23° to 26° south. Principal export is matte tea. Annual amount of duties, $58,800.

Pernambuco.-Latitude, 740 to 90 south. Principal export, sugar, cotton, hides, spirits, coffee. There is an additional export duty of 5 cents for the benefit of charitable institution; also 4 per cent. on each cotton bag if made out of the province in which sugar is exported.

Piauhy.-Latitude, 20 to 100 south. Exports, cotton, and sometimes mandioca and rice. The rate of provincial export duties may be assumed as about the same as in Maranham or Ceará, which adjoin it. Annual amount of duties, $20,659.

Rio de Janeiro.-Latitude, 21° to 23° south. Principal exports, coffee, cotton, sugar, spirits, hides, tobacco. Annual amount of (provincial) export duties, $1,042,256.

Rio Grande do Norte.-Latitude, 50 to 60 south. Principal exports, cotton and sugar. Annual amount of duties, $69,570, and the rate may be taken about the same as in the adjoining province of Ceará.

Rio Grande do Sul.-Latitude, 27° to 320 south. Principal exports, hides, hair, wool, tobacco, and matte-tea. Annual amount of duties, $406,792.

Latitude, 26° to 29° south.

Considered a remark

Santa Catharina. ably salubrious province. Principal exports, mandioca, cotton, maize, rice, and beans. Annual amount of duties, $51,911. San Paulo.-Latitude, 0° to 24° south. Province of the most diversified agriculture. Principal exports, coffee, cotton, and wool. There is an "additional" duty of 80 reis, say, 4 cents, per bag of coffee. On all other articles 4 per cent. and 20 per cent. "additional." Annual amount of duties, $69,246.

sugar.

Sergipe.-Latitude, 10 to 11 south. Principal exports, cotton and In addition to the duties stated in the table, the following are collected for hospitals: 1 cent on each bag of sugar, 1 "real" on each kilogram of cotton, 1 cent on each hide, and 34 cents on each pipe of spirits. Annual amount of duties, $195,966.

I am, sir,

C. C. ANDREWS,
Consul-General.

Rio de Janeiro, August 31, 1883.

UNITED STATES CONSULATE GENERAL,

UNITED STATES OF COLOMBIA.

TARIFF OF THE UNITED STATES OF COLOMBIA.

REPORT BY CONSUL SMITH, OF CARTHAGENA.

FIRST CLASS.

Free.

1. Altars, chapels, and organs for churches.

2. Apparatus for gas-lighting and producing it.

3. Arms and munitions of war that may be imported for the use of the constitutional governments of the states.

4. Rice, corn, potatoes, onions, lentils, sweet potatoes, chick peas, beans, and all classes of vegetables and fresh fruits.

5. The following article intended for packing and filling with liquids: demijohns, large bottles, bottles large and small, flasks either of clay or glass, the common stuff made of hemp or heniquen, tarred or untarred water-proof paper used for packing.

6. Marble and jasper, flat paving stones.

7. Pipes for public aqueducts of districts.

8. Baggage of passengers not to exceed one hundred kilograms for each person; provided, however, the goods contained in it are for their personal use and that they are presented by them at the custom-house at the time of entry into Colombian territory. For any excess over the one hundred kilograms, 60 cents for each additional kilogram is charged 9. Rough iron, zinc in sheets, materials composed of wire and iron to be used in the construction of bridges and prison houses; public clocks for the districts; materials and apparatus for public fountains.

10. Printed books of any class.

11. Machinery [not?] exceeding 1,000 kilograms in weight.

12. Any machinery, no matter what its weight, that may be imported for mining and agricultural purposes.

13. Sewing machines and their annexes, like crimping machines, &c. 14. Machines and their appurtenances for preparing coffee, imported totally or partially, the galvanized wire cloth for stoves, iron pipes, the fans and fanning apparatus, the iron roofs, and in general all goods and tools applicable for coffee machines.

15. Gold coins (lawful) not below the standard of those coined by the

nation.

16. Monuments, statues, and iron rails intended for ornamentation of public buildings and squares.

17. Expressed juice of barley or other fermented or unfermented matter, either liquid or solid, intended for brewing purposes and the condensed beer.

18. Samples in small pieces, when their total weight does not exceed 25 kilograms.

19. Iron works that may be imported for the prison house of the State of Cundinamarca and for all the other state prisons in the republic. 20. Straw for making hats.

21. Lightning-rods, plows, and fire engines.

22. Silver in bars and silver coins of 0.900 fine.

23. Filtering stones.

S. Doc. 231, pt 5—27

24. Lead in ingots, and quicksilver for mining purposes.

25. Presses, materials, and implements for printing offices, and for book-binders and lithographers, including ink, blank paper, and pasteboards, for such purposes.

26. Iron bridges of any shape.

27. Subcarbonate of potash.

28. Subcarbonate of soda.

29. Implements and materials intended for establishing, sustaining, and improving public lighting.

30. Wine known as common claret like that produced at Catalonia, Bordeaux, &c., imported in barrels, casks, and demijohns.

31. Relates to building materials that may be imported into the State of Magdalena for erection of houses, &c., in said State.

SPECIAL CLASS.

The following articles under this head enter also free of import duties: 1. Wire for fences, staples for same, stretchers to fix it.

2. Live animals.

3. All articles imported for account of national government, whatever its nature be.

4. The following articles intended for packing: Empty barrels, casks, and hogsheads erected or in pieces; common and rough wooden boxes in pieces, skillets for match-boxes and the sticks to make them.

5. Vessels erected or in pieces that may be imported to navigate the interior waters of Colombia.

6. Mineral coal.

7. Goods for the personal use of public ministers and diplomatic agents of foreign countries accredited near the Government of Colombia, pro vided the same courtesy is extended by their respective countries, and that the usual formalities are observed.

8. Wood or iron houses in pieces. The windows, doors, &c., when coming alone, belong to the second class of the tariff (5 cents per kilogram).

9. Goods and implements that may be imported for the use of the Charity Hospital at Barranquilla, and its annexed free school for girls. 10. Hay and down, unmanufactured.

11. Ice, phosphates, seeds and shoots of plants.

12. Printed matter and labels or advertisements, with or without frames.

13. Printing machinery and materials imported for account of state governments.

14. Lumber for building purposes, such as beams, ties, boards, &c. 15. Machinery and apparatus applicable to the construction, improvement, and preservation of roads; for opening and sustaining canals for navigation; wagons, implements, and materials intended exclusively for railroads, and the materials for the construction of elec tric telegraphs.

16. Powdered marble, clay, cement, lime, rough or powdered, plaster of Paris, chalk, feldspar, silt, massicot, kaolin, powdered bone, and any other substance for the manufacture of earthenware.

17. Building materials, such as rough stones, clay, bricks, clay or stone paving.

18. Motors of any class or power, and machinery for industrial and mining enterprises.

19. Plants of any kind.

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