Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/340

 318 THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL Adopted originally in 1865 in the Swedish town, from which it derives its name, as a likely check to intemperance, it was warmly advocated in England, but seems to have now passed out of notice. The revenue derived from the method by the town of Gothenburg in 1875-6 was about 40,000; but the combination of financial and non-financial ends is very hard to realize, the financial success being in this case a failure for the temperance party, who are apprehensive of the direct interest that the municipal authorities have in the increased consumption of intoxicating liquors. MATCHSs.--The match tax, the mere proposition of which in England was so fatal to Mr. Lowe's popularity as a financier, has in- France taken the form of a monopoly farmed out to a company. A stamp cluy on the model of the English proposition was first tried after the war of 1870-71, but its yield proving insignificant it was replaced by the monopoly in 1872. The results have not, so far, been satisfactory. The state receipts have bee from 16 to 17 million francs per annum, but 32,500,000 francs had to be expended in compensation to the expropriated manufacturers. The company has not made profits; there are loud complaints as to the inferior quality of their product; and finally, the prosecu- tions for infringement of the privilege are numerous. The fact that matches are a part of necessary consumption in modern society, and the desirability of encouraging technical progress in their manufacture, both tell against the monopoly. It is even doubtful Jevons' view to the contrary notwithstanding whether they are fit objects of taxation in any form, and it is clear that there are many better taxes. GVNPOW.R.--The ancient French gunpowder monopoly, dating from the sixteenth century, has, as Hock remarks, 'no financial significance.' Though abandoned at the Revolution, it was instituted afresh in 1797, and has survived to the present time. Its net yield is small, amounting to 10,500,000 francs in 1885. The manufacture of dynamite, which was at first included under this monopoly, has, since 1875, been surrendered to private industry with an excise duty of two francs per kilo. e LOTTr. RSs.--The tendency of the state to seek gain from the errors or weaknesses of its subjects is very strongly marked in the earlier periods of financial history, and prominent among illustra- tions of this proposition is the treatment of lotteries. For raising loans or procuring revenue appeal was often made to men's ' absurd presumption in their own good fortune' in its crudest A bgaben und $hu/den, p. 157. Say, Dictionnaire des F, inances, s.v. Dynamite.