Page:Indian Journal of Economics Volume 2.djvu/328

 814 S. M. PA6AR the offerings brought by the devotees with them. The government usually farmed out these to a renter tora lump sum; fixed snms to perform the various penances; and finally (d) license fees for shops, booths, and stalls dnring religious festivals.  These various taxes were recognised to be a great hindrance to trade and commerce. Accordingly Lord Cornwallis, the then Governor General of India under the Company consolidated the sayar into the transit and town monstrons miles from duties. inland Attoek This was the beginning of that tariff wall extending over 1,500 in the north to Cattack in the 1878 by Lord southeast, which was abolished only in Lytton with the aid of Sir J. Srachey, regalar sea- customs being substituted for them. s It is astonish- ing that a free trading England should have ted such a thing for nearly a century l The Hoturpha, levied on trades, industries, and occupations, and chiefly found in Madras after 1833, formed part of the provincial revenues since 154 on account og the increase in the salt duty for the Central Government. This tax in Hadres, bringing an annual revenue of over 100,000 was not abolished until after the Mutiny. In summing up for the precedhg three periods one frankly admits that the trading and the professional classes, Pandits and Shestrees, Haulvis and Kazis contributed little or next to nothing to the public treasncg. On close study one other fact also becomes pro- minent and it is this that India left to herself would tolera- have developed in he long run a systen of general propery ax and impor duties, raher han low impor duties and an income ax. To be sure Seleot Committee, p. xvi. Sir Oh. Trevelyan's evidenoe before the Ftwoett Committee Vol. Ill, Q. 764. Straohey, Sir. J., India and its Adrninlatration, p. 179. of 1871,