hardly exist in Persia. The individuality of each rug adds to the difficulty. Goods are sold for what they will bring. One day a merchant sells an article at a loss; the next day, perhaps, a lucky customer will give him a handsome profit for a similar article. He averages the profit and loss, and, if shrewd, by the end of the year manages to have the balance in his favor. But small profits are the rule, and such a thing as a fixed price is utterly unheard of. Members of old or prominent families are often obliged to realize on carpets or embroideries or other articles, which are both rare and costly. They intrust these articles to a dellâb or peddler to sell on commission. In such cases articles worth 100 tomans are often sold for 30 to 40 tomans. As a large part of the trade in the cities is done by the dellâs this natur ally has a tendency to keep down prices. The carpets ordered and sold by the Ziegler Company follow more uniform rates; but in all other cases it is impossible to affirm that one can ascertain more than the probable market value of Persian carpets and rugs in Persia. It may be stated, however, that a buyer experienced in Oriental ways can purchase good rugs in Persia at such rates as to leave a fair margin for good profits in America over and above the cost, transportation and duties included. The European demand for old Persian carpets has so far fallen off as to leave but a poor market for those which are much worn or decayed. But there seems to be an increasing demand on the part of connoisseurs and amateurs for the better grades of well preserved antique rugs of Persia. Their artistic qualities are so undeniable that they must always be in fashion for almost every class of household decoration, while their texture and durability well suits them to impart an air of comfort to interiors. S. G. W. BENJAMIN. UNITED STATES CONSULATE-GENERAL, Teheran, April 29, 1884. TAXATION IN PORTUGAL. REPORT BY MINISTER FRANCIS, OF LISBON. A general idea of taxation in Portugal may be gathered from the fol· lowing carefully prepared statement: TAXES ON PROPERTY. Real property is taxed on the basis of income. Proprietors of houses must make declaration of rents received by them; the same course is pursued in respect of farming lands. Rental sum or value of use is estimated in cases of occupancy of premises by proprietors thereof. The Government fixes a certain amount to be levied upon every district, and this is divided among the property owners upon the basis of income as explained. Unoccupied premises are not taxed. The aggregate of annual taxes upon real property amounts to about 13 per cent. of the income or estimated income therefrom. TAXES ON TRADES AND INDUSTRIES. The Kingdom is divided into six different classes of towns, and the trade and industries into eight different categories. The following table illustrates the system, the figures representing the annual tax in reis (1,000 reis equal $1.08) upon each person or firm of the different classes and categories named: The following example will show how the tax is worked out, taking a person or firm placed in the second category of the first class of towns: But as every trade or industry is composed of tradesmen, manufacturers, &c., doing more or less business, the Government orders that all persons included in the same category shall form among themselves a board, composed of a president and two secretaries, charged with the duty of fixing among the respective members the amount of tax levied by the Government over and above the total of the minimum sum named for each category; that is to say, as for example, the amount must be equal to an annual tax of 200,000 reis ($216) each upon those embraced in the first category of first class, as inserted in the table, that amount being the minimum; but as the aggregate levied by the Government always largely exceeds the total of the minimums, the board referred to is charged with the duty of distributing the excess in an equitable manner, so that the larger dealers or tradesmen shall bear their proper proportion of the tax in excess of the minimum (as given in the table), which all must pay. TAXES ON RENTS. These taxes are paid by the residents of houses, and are charged in accordance with rents paid by them to proprietors. Supposing the rent of a house to be 380,000 reis, we have the following taxes: SUMPTUARY TAXES. The kingdom is divided into six different classes, taxes being the same, however, in first and second, and again the same at lowest rates in fourth, fifth, and sixth classes. The persons who have servants, carriages, horses, &c., must pay according to the class of the town wherein they reside, as follows, the figures representing reis: The following is an example of tax paid by a person in the first or Three per cent. is levied upon all official salaries, upon the dividends of all incorporated institutions, and upon the coupons of Government securities held in Portugal. INDIRECT TAXES. The estimated receipts from "indirect taxes and customs," as given in the budget of 1884-'85, aggregate $17,464,906, little more than half the estimated expenditures of the Government for the year named. OTHER TAXES. The remaining sum required to make up the expenditures, which are estimated at $34,524,537, is derived from direct taxes, $6,783,361; stamps and registration, $3,504,488; "additional" tax, $1,141,560; sale of national domains and miscellaneous receipts, $3,603,441; repayments and sundries, $1,188,882, with deficit of $883,897. REMARKS. It will be seen that taxation in Portugal in its multiplied forms bears upon every material interest, and levies a large contribution upon the wealth and industry of the kingdom. Complaints are made of inequalities and partialities in the levies, with the charge that favored individuals who are supposed to wield influence in political affairs are permitted to underestimate the taxable income of their estates, and in the cities and towns to place themselves in the lower categories of industries, in order to escape burdens they ought to bear, and to shift upon others a good portion of the load it is their legal and equitable obligation to carry. But it may be said that complaints of unjust taxation prevail under the best systems the wit of man has yet devised. In regard to method, it is claimed that the policy of taxing rents or the income of real property is a fairer system than that of assessing the entire value of such property and placing taxation upon the basis of such assessment without reference to the income it may yield. Unoccupied houses are not subject to taxation in Portugal. The theory is that the use of a thing defines the measure of its value; that to tax unused property is a process of confiscation. In reply it may be said that the moderate taxation of unoccupied estates induces the effort to secure their occupancy, and discourages the disposition to hold them tenantless and undeveloped awaiting the acceptance of unreasonable rental demands. There is force in this argument as applicable to landed estates in the old countries, especially with a large tenant class always anxious to secure the use of land as the opportunity offers at rental rates enabling them to work out a very humble living. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Minister. JOHN M. FRANCIS, Lisbon, March 8, 1884. MENDICANCY IN PORTUGAL. REPORT OF MINISTER FRANCIS, OF LISBON. In Portugal the State has not undertaken the administration of charity; it has no organized system for the maintenance of mendicants; the insane, the blind, and deaf-mutes are not directly cared for by the State. In a word, it may be said it does not through organizations of public beneficence recognize the principle of legal charity. There are no official reports or publications thereupon showing the extent of mendicity in this kingdom. That it prevails largely is evident to all observers, and although under the civil and administrative codes it is made the duty of municipalities and parishes to provide proper support for the poor and enforce measures for the extirpation of mendicancy within their respective jurisdictions, as a matter of fact comparatively little is done through these agencies to effect the desired object. Private beneficence applied by means of organized methods constitutes the only effective charity in this case, and the societies formed for that purpose, especially in the larger towns of the kingdom, are active and efficient. Mendicancy is forbidden by a city ordinance in Lisbon, but still it prevails here to a considerable extent, and not infrequently in very repulsive forms. In the country towns and hamlets the evil is more offensively conspicuous. Importunate wretches, with distorted limbs and diseased bodies-literally the "halt, lame, and blind"-beset the streets and loudly clamor for "backsheesh." The evil increases under the misguided charity of promiscuous giving, and mendicancy is inherited and transmitted in families, who ply their vocation in accordance with natural desire and as a matter of business. If the municipalities and parishes were made to obey the law of the kingdom the social plague would be largely abated, and professional mendicancy greatly checked if not practically extirpated. There are private associations of beneficence in some towns, like the Bureau de Bienfaisance of the French and Belgians, destined to help the poor in their homes and to find work for those who are able to work. In many of the principal towns of the kingdom the institution known as the Santa casa da Misericordia is established. It is of private origin, destined to practice different works of charity and chiefly to maintain hospitals for the poor. There are two lunatic asylums which, under private direction, receive stipulated subsidies from the municipalities, one in Lisbon and the other at Oporto, the latter built and largely endowed by the late Count Ferreira, with ample accommodations for three hundred and fifty inmates. There are also asylums for poor children, hospitals for the infirm poor, and for the lame, and other charitable institutions in some of the more important towns of the kingdom; but all of these establishments are mainly supported by private beneficence. Of those in Lisbon there are three: "Misericordia,” known as a foundling hospital; the "Asylo da Mendicidade," where the poor are cared for, at present having about two thousand inmates; and the "Casa Pia," where upward of one thousand orphans are supported, taught the elementary branches, and, when of proper age, secured places for service and self-support. These institutions receive some aid from the Government or the municipality, the "Misericordia" enjoying the profits of 15 per cent. which the Government exacts upon the sale of lottery tickets. There are the "albergos nocturnos," or places of refuge for the poor at night, largely under the patronage of the King; also the institutions known as "The Creche," of which there are several in Lisbon, one of the number established by the Queen in honor of her lamented father the late King Victor Emmanuel of Italy, and supported by her. "The Creche" receives for the day infants and young children of poor mothers who go out to work. The little ones are nicely clad and well cared for, and their mothers are instructed with reference to rearing them properly, and enforcing habits of cleanliness. It may be said of the aid extended to the poor in this kingdom that the bulk of this charity, nearly all in fact, is contributed by societies of citizens mainly of the larger towns, whose voluntary offerings are very large in the aggregate. A considerable proportion of the money required for the support of this beneficence is derived from endowment funds, which are annually increased by testamentary appropriations made by wealthy persons of charitable disposition. Finally, it may be said that while private philanthrophy does much to ameliorate the condition of the poor in this kingdom, there is a lack of organization and effort on the part of local authorities to properly treat the evil of professional mendicancy, a plague that increases under indiscriminate ministrations by the charitable, and is the source of demoralization to the State. JOHN M. FRANCIS, LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Minister. |