Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/85

 PUBLIC REVENUE. 7^ transit duties are levied, and, as now stated, even to the farmer himself. In the early state of com- merce in all countries, the pernicious system of farming such branches of the public revenue as consist of taxes on consumption is general. From the peculiar commercial capabilities of the In- dian islands, and the resort of strangers, they may justly be said to be possessed of a share of trade beyond its usual extent, in countries of equal civilization. The incapacity and ignorance of men in their state of society, renders the Indian islanders quite unequal to the details of a business of any degree of compiexness, and the necessary consequence is, that the manage- ment of the revenue, in all the more difficult branches, falls into the hands of rapacious stran- gers. The employment of the Chmese in the di- rect collection of the duties is found impracticable from their utter want of moral character and inteo-ri- ty, so that the farming system becomes, by necessity, the only resource, and the only means of securing the just amount of the public revenue, is the dis- posal of the farms by the competition of a pub- lic sale. Even in European establishments, from the unwise restraints imposed on European coloni- zation, the employment of European officers in the direct management of the revenue has not been found to answer. The smallness of their numbers does not admit of the employment of