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320 ECONOMIC INQUIRIES AND STUDIES
188 I and 189 I to local authorities, but the amount
yielded by Excise has increased more than Customs,
and the two of course should be taken togethet;. On
the other side, it will be seen that income tax, after
beginning at IOct. per £ in 186 I, and being as low as
4d. in 1871, has since been raised to IS. in 1901, and
now stands, as all of us know, at IS. 2d. in the £. No
doubt another change in the \Yay of reduction has taken
place in the income tax as already mentioned, viz., the
increase of the lower limit of the tax and the increase
of the limit up to which abatements are made (see
Table VII.); but this does not alter the fact of the in-
crease of the rate of the tax as far as incomes above
£700 are concerned. With regard to death duties it
would be tedious to make an arithmetical comparison,
but two or three changes of obvious effect have been
made, viz., the subjection of real property to the same
rates and mode of charging as personal property, an
increase of the duties generally, and a special increase
of the rate of duty in proportion to the increase of the
size of properties. The marvellous increase of the death
duties is thus in no way surprising.
The net result of the whole change is the substitu-
tion of income tax and death duties in our tax system
for duties of Customs and Excise, especially for duties
on tea and sugar, on which we relied largely in 1861,
and still relied to some extent as late as 1871. They
also take the place, of course, of the minor Customs
duties on corn and timber, etc., which existed without
any feeling against them as involving a breach of Free
Trade, because in fact they yielded some useful money
to the exchequer without inconvenience to business.
4. To show the exact proportion of certain branches
of revenue to the total revenue at different times, a sepa-
rate table (Table XII.) has been added in the appendix.
This tabl~eaks for itself. I t confirms fully what has
already been said as to the change in our tax system
which has occurred. Income tax and death duties,
which supplied 20 per cent., or one-fifth of the revenue