Alcabala [1] (internal duties) to be collected from the consumer, not to exceed eight per cent, ad valorem, to be paid by stamp, to run for a period of twenty years, commencing with April 5th, 1892. 3. No taxation on imported articles other than the regular federal custom dues imposed at port of entry, and the stamp tax. 4. The revenues from the eight per cent, tax to belong to the states collecting the same, the others to be paid into the federal customs.
[A. D. 1893.] The end, aim, and object of the president, "who again succeeded himself," next to his determination to crush the first incipient signs of rebellion appeared to be an overwhelming and farsighted ambition to enact liberal and attractive laws. The framing of such legislation as would best conduce to the development of the resources of the country, and the colonizing of its profitably arable wastes, which for so many centuries had lain fallow. Governed by this laudable and controlling influence, Diaz further amended the mining laws, so that the mere payment of the new federal tax would give a clear title, and canceled the statute that had hitherto placed a limit on individual ownership. In the construction of the 6,950 miles of railway now open for traffic, American capitalists had been encouraged to invest $245,000,000, while England had contributed
- ↑ Note:—The Alcabala, as defined by Escriche, was the tribute charged upon the proceeds of all sales or barters paid into the public treasury. According to an official bulletin issued at Washington, the tax was first established in 1575. The radical reforms of 1830, which provided for a five per cent, extra tax on consumption over and above duties on foreign products and manufactures, had hampered trade disastrously. A new fiscal regime was needed. In 1839 it had been raised twelve per cent. In 1846 the tax was abolished. In 1853 it was reestablished by Santa Anna. In 1861 president Juarez abolished it, and in 1862 it was once again reestablished by the Executive to help to sustain the war against French intervention.
