The average crop of the various cereals in these provinces is as follows:* Cherson Bessarabia Taurida Ekaterinoslav Poltava Don Cossack territory.... Bushels. Bushels. Bushels. Bushels. Bushels. Bushels. 12,600,000 7,500,000 2,400,000 5,700,000 23,400,000 240,000 900,000 108,000 Kharkof.......... Kief...... Volhynia Besides the above cereals, the province of Cherson yielded 1,929,ooo bushels of corn; Bessarabia, 17,679,000 bushels; and Podolia, 3,857,000 bushels. The province of Poltava yields about 5,250,000 bushels of buckwheat annually; Kharkof, 1,800,000 bushels; Kief, 4,875,000 bushels; Podolia, 1,800,000 bushels; and Volhynia, 3,375,000 bushels. The failure of the rye crop in this southern country is the most serious feature of the situation, because it is the food of the masses and this is the third year in succession in which the rye crop has failed or practically failed. This may be seen by the exports from Odessa: * Under date of June 19, Consul Heenan gives the following statistics as to the yield in 1891 (the famine year) of the provinces named: The famine year, notes the consul, did not produce a great diminution of rye and wheat in the southern provinces, from which there are now such unfavorable reports as to both winter and spring sown crops. A line Failure of the crops in southern Russia is imminent. drawn on the map from Kief to the southern part of the province of Samara, and thence, in a northerly direction, following the course of the River Volga, to Kazan; thence west to Moscow, and south again to Kief, will give a fair idea of the area within which more or less famine exists. It would almost seem as if European Russia might be dismissed as a factor in successful agriculture. The climatic conditions throughout this area are of so uncertain a character as to be a constant source of anxiety and danger to the farming population. The widespread misery is appalling. Under date of June 19, Consul Heenan adds that reports from central and eastern Russia indicate similar conditions as to shortage of crops. The province of Saratov has suffered severely from lack of rain. This province contains 20,879,357 acres and has a population of 2,419,844. It has ten cities with a population of over 10,000, of which Saratov (138,000) is the largest. The average crop of wheat (spring) has been 10,500,000 bushels; of oats, 30,938,000 bushels; of rye, 35,036,000 bushels. Exporters at Odessa are in anything but a cheerful frame of mind and foreign houses contemplate closing for the season. There is undoubtedly, says the consul, considerable wheat held back by the farmers; but this does not indicate that they are in a prosperous condition. Nearly all are heavily in debt to the Government. INHERITED PROPERTY IN FRANCE. I forward the following translation of a communication recently made to the Statistical Society of France by M. Emanuel Besson, concerning the progressive increase in the value of inherited property in France in the nineteenth century. After his history of the tax on inheritances, Mr. Besson, coming down to modern times, treats, in succession, three distinct periods, viz, up to 1850, 1850 and 1870, and after the events of 1871. During the first half of the century, the circulation of securities showed but little activity. The annual inheritances increased very slowly in amount from 1826 to 1850, the year 1849 showing a gain of 275,000,000 francs ($53,075,000), as compared with 1826. The proportion was greater (60 per cent) for personal property than for real estate (31 per cent), although the actual amount of the augmentation was the same for each. There was certainly an appreciable progress, corresponding more or less approximately with the normal development of taxable values. Notwithstanding the proportionately greater increase in personal property during that period (1826-1850), real estate remained the more important element. In 1826, personal property was only 34 per cent of the total of taxed values, real estate being 66 per cent. In 1849, the proportion was not notably changed, being 39 per cent for personal property and 61 per cent for real estate. The second period was inaugurated by the passage of a very important fiscal law, that of the 18th of May, 1850, extending the succession tax to both French and foreign government funds, which had up to that time been exempted. This law also extended the same rules of taxation to the stocks of foreign companies, "for industrial and financial purposes," in so far as concerned an inheritance coming under the action of the laws of France. The bonds of foreign companies were temporarily exempted from the succession tax. The three categories of values newly taxed after 1851 increased the annual succession duties by a tribute of 86,000,000 francs ($16,598,000). This increase, which thereafter rapidly augmented from year to year, contributed very powerfully to the increase of the total of taxed values. There was progress in all directions. All classes of taxable values contributed to it, as shown by the following table, which gives the annual amounts of values subjected to inheritance tax: The expansion of the annual amount of the succession tax on the side of personal property was evidently due to the taxation of securities under the law of 1850. The fiscal law of May 13, 1863, extending the inheritance tax to the bonds of foreign companies, had a marked influence in the development of the annual amount derived from tax on personal property. The effect of this additional law was seen after the year 1864 in an increase of tax values of 100,000,000 francs ($19,300,000). The increase in the annual inheritance tax for real estate was due to the increase in the revenues derived therefrom. In 1851, these total revenues amounted to 2,500,000,000 francs ($482,500,000), and had risen in 1862 to 3,096,000,000 francs ($597,528,000). The real values during this period showed a corresponding increase. The average price of land, per acre, from 1789 to 1851 was as follows: In 1789, $39; 1821, $62; 1835, $78; 1851, $100. It will be noted by the following statement, giving the rental per acre, that farm rents showed a proportionate rise: It may be remarked that there has been a tendency towards an equilibrium between the taxes derived annually from real and from personal property. This tendency, hardly perceptible between 1826 and 1850, is plainly visible at present and becomes constantly more pronounced. In 1855, personal property represented only 39 per cent, while real estate represented 61 per cent of the total. In 1869, personal property rose to 45 per cent, while real estate fell to 55 per cent. Taking up a study of the third period, Mr. Besson calls attention. to the object and scope of reforms inaugurated, as far as succession taxes levied under the law of the 23d of August, 1871, are concerned. He says: Many restrictions in the laws of 1850 and 1863 were removed by the law of 1871, which permits the imposition of a tax upon all personal property forming part of an inheritance coming within the scope of French law, going so far as to tax property forming part of an estate left by a foreigner domiciled in France, whether the domicile be authorized or informal. Without taking account of the year 1871, in which the exceptionally high revenue receipts corresponded with an abnormal mortality, it will be seen that almost immediately after the passage of the law of the 23d of August of that year, the total annual amount of property coming under the inheritance tax rose rapidly. In 1875, it amounted to 4,000,000,000 francs ($772,000,000), and in 1879 to 5,000,000,000 francs ($965,000,000), in which personal property of all kinds amounted to 2,392,000,000 francs ($461,656,000). From From 1879 the annual sum taxed remained stationary until about 1884. 1885 the figures rose and, kept up by a constantly increasing proportion of personal property, reached for the year 1892 6,404,000,000 francs ($1,235,972,000), of which 3,275,000,000 francs ($632,075,000) were for personal property and 3,129,000,000 francs ($603,897,000) for real estate. Since 1892, the annual amount of property coming under the inheritance tax has oscillated between 5,500,000,000 and 5,800,000,000 francs ($1,061,500,000 and $1,119,400,000). A comparison between the years 1869 and 1896 shows the following figures: At the present time, the 5,500,000,000 francs ($1,061,500,000) annually taxed is distributed almost evenly between real and personal property, the personal property being about 100,000,000 francs ($19,300,000) more each year than the real Mr. Besson terminates his explanations by setting forth the fact that The development of general wealth in the form of personal property sustains the spread of commerce and industry, allows the fructification of the most modest savings, and contributes, in a very large degree, to the prosperity of the system of public taxes. No. 228- II. This element of wealth, which at the beginning of the century was considered of little account, constitutes in our days one of the most fruitful branches of the fiscal revenues. In the tax on inheritance, on gifts passing between living persons, on the sale of stocks and bonds and the sale of stamps, and the 4 per cent on all stock registered at the bourse, personal property pays a share of the general taxes at least equal to that paid by real property. Productiveness of the revenue from personal property can not fail to increase in the future as economic development becomes more intense, as international exchanges are multiplied, and as human genius or chance discoveries may offer new employment for capital. But this wealth is not inexhaustible, and it is essential that it should not be driven from the country by taxation. It is but proper, in this connection, to call attention to the fact that the tax on personal property yields a large revenue in France, because everything of that nature is taxed. The right to practice a profession, to open a store or saloon, to carry on a factory, to sell newspapers at a stand on a street corner, is taxed and that quite heavily. A tax is paid at the city gates to bring a chicken, eggs, or a few bottles of wine into the city. Some of these personal taxes really amount to double taxation. The American dentist in Lyons, for example, pays an annual license of 800 francs ($154.40) on his office and the same sum on his residence. A second-hand furniture dealer pays for a license and in addition a tax of 10 or 12 francs ($1.93 or $2.32) per year for the right to display his wares on the sidewalk. The tax on saloons is proportioned to their rent. If chairs and tables and small trees or plants in boxes are placed in front of the saloon, or an awning lowered over the sidewalk, a special personal tax is imposed for each of those articles. The money de rived from these taxes is divided among the city, the commune, and State. It was stated in the French Chamber of Deputies on the 9th of March, 1899, that the farms and vineyards of France paid 12.4 per cent of their revenue in taxes, that improved property paid 7 per cent, that licenses (patents) paid 6 per cent, and personal property 4 per Paul Leroy Beaulieu, editor of the Economist Français, wrote recently that taxes in France are 75 francs ($14.48) per head and in England 56 francs ($10.81). He quoted from Eugène Pelletan the following rates of taxation per capita in the several countries mentioned: cent. |