Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/329

 TAXATION THROUGH MONOPOLY MONOPOLY both in ts practical and theoretical aspects has recently attracted a good deal of attention. The many attempts nade in this and other countries notably the United States to control the supply of the most diverse commodities; the frequent failure of competition in regard to transport agencies and other similar industries; and the influence exerted by combinations of workmen and employers on the labour market have all shown that the question is one not ' wanting in actuality.' At the same time, modern developments of economic theory have assigned a more prominent place to deductions from the hypothesis of pure monopoly. That hypothesis is now allowed to be quite as legiti- mate for scientific use as the opposite one of unrestricted petition, though its practical applications may be and are limited. corn- more The present article does not, however, deal with any of these difiio cult and tempting matters; it is directed to a different and compara- tively neglected side of the general subject. Students of public finance may find some interest in a short account of the various applications of the agency of monopoly, as an instrument for pro- curing public revenue, all cases being included in which the state's resources are actually increased through the action of monopoly, even though it may have been adopted for political or social rather than financial reasons. The employment of monopoly as a fiscal agent is, as is well known, a very ancient expedient. One of the most remarkable characteristics of the revenue systems of earl societies appears in their combination of public and private sources of income. The state or 'royal' economy is not so sharply distinguished from private economies as it is in later times; its receipts are derived from land, mines, industry, commerce, and an extra- ordinary number of claims or prerogative rights (the regalia of x2