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458 upon a value assigned to each separate article by the Tariff, calculated upon the prices that had existed during the monopoly of the Mother-country.

Besides the Customs, there was a sort of Excise paid in the towns where the various articles were consumed, under the denomination of Ălcăvālă, the average amount of which was twelve per cent., although on wines and brandies, it was thirty-five and forty per cent. There were, also, certain Municipal duties levied in the inland towns by the Ayuntamientos, or Corporations, which, however, seldom exceeded one and a half per cent.

Both the Alcavalas, (which belonged to the National Treasury), and the Municipal duties, were abolished by the law of the 4th of August, 1824, by which the revenues of the Federation were classed; and, in lieu of them, a duty of Fifteen per cent, on all goods forwarded from the ports into the Interior, was established, (Derecho de internacion) while another duty of Three per cent, was granted to the States on the articles consumed in their respective territories.

This change, although it raised in fact the duties payable on Foreign Imports, from 38½ to 43 per cent., was, nevertheless, an advantage to the