of taxes, proportioned to quality and value. Mercantile drafts are taxed at $10 per $1,000, which means a dollar on every hundred.
Farms, haciendas and town estates are required to be taxed at the rate of $3 per each $1,000 of the valuation, but such is the influence of the land-owners that the valuation is almost nominal. In Vera Cruz the rate is reported at about 2 mills on the dollar for the most productive portions of country estates; while in the Pacific State of Colima the rate is said to be 11⁄2 per cent. Land and buildings not actually producing income are exempt from taxation, notwithstanding they may be continually enhancing in value.[1]
In the towns, this system of infinitesimal taxation is indefinitely repeated, the towns acting as collectors of revenue for the Federal and State governments, as well as for their own municipal requirements. All industries pay a monthly fee: as tanneries, 50 cents; soap-factories, $1. So also all shops for the sale of goods pay according to their class, from a few dollars down to a few cents per month. Each beef animal, on leaving a town, pays 50 cents; each fat pig, 25 cents; each sheep, 12 cents; each load of corn, fruit, vegeta-
- ↑ This practice of exempting unoccupied realty from taxation also prevails in Portugal. The theory there in justification of the practice is, that the use of a thing defines its measure of value, and that to tax unused property is a process of confiscation.
