Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/802

 780 THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL took away many of the chances of fraud, which abounded in a land of petty principalities, each with its own currency (18, 19). The American mines destroyed the possibility of isolating the currency of one nation from that of other nations. Mercantilism was driven into its second phase; instead of prohibitions to export precious metals, we read of encouragements to import them (19). The changes in the relative values of gold and silver, and of the values of either in relation to other things, would of thenselves have made the metallic theory im- practicable, or its practice unjust (20-3). The distress occasioned by the retention of the legal theory in such circumstances is no more than is occasioned by the introduction, for example, of machinery (23n). The greater honesty and steadiness of governments in regard to coinage removed a great part of the motive for readjustment (7-34). Finally the introduction of paper money and the various modern forms of credit made the old metallic theory quite obsolete (31). The French Code is quite clear on this point (Code Civil, article 1895): ' The obligation result- ingfrom a loan of money is simply the numerical sum named in the con- tract. If there has been an augmentation or diminution of the coinage before the time of payment, the debtor is to repay the numerical sum lent to him, and only that sum, in the coins passing current at time of paymentS' (Quoted 32n.) Dr. Conigliani is well known by his treatise on Effetti Economic delle I?nposte (Milano, 1890). His present paper follows up his tract on Le Dottrine Monetarie in Fraca durante il Medgoevo (Modena, 1890), and is an interesting contribution to the history of the mercantile theory as well as to the history and doctrine of currency. JAMES BONAR The History of Tariff Administration JoN DEAN Goss, Ph.D. New iu the United States. York, 1891. BY Ir this interesting monograph (published by Columbia College) Dr. Goss deals with a comparatively neglected side of the tariff question. Economists have been so absorbed in the study of the substantive part of the taxation of imports, that they have forgotten the influence of administrative methods. Changes in the mode of collecting or assessing duties may be quite as important as alterations in rates. The diffi- culties that the United States Customs have had to contend with, and which have produced an abundant crop of legislation from' the Act of 1799 down to the McKinley Act of 1890, are shown by Dr. Goss's narrative to be mainly the result of the system of ad valorem duties, a course necessitated by the protective system (p. 8). Hence all the complications that harass traders and injure the revenue; the consular verifications--one of the greatest sources of annoyance and scandal in our entire revenue system (p. 3) the appraisements and re-appraise- ments, and the innumerable suits that are the inevitable consequence. The McKinley Administrative Act (not to be confounded with the more