understand why a vehement opposition is expected, and indeed We
arrive at the question how far the proposed tax would already apparent, on the part of the National Liberals. The fulfil its destined purpose in regenerating the national finances. effect of the complete scheme, when carried out, would be to And the simplest answer to this inquiry is to be found in the strengthen immensely the hands of the Central Government, fact that the Germans are a nation of smokers. From the and to give it pro tanto, in as far as its financial resources were time when Frederick William I. started his tobacco-club till augmented, that which Charles II. and Louis XIV. used to call now, every soul in the country, from prince to peasant and
their prosperity or yield an approach to their normal scheme for reorganising the national finances, as a design to
revenue. grasp more firmly the reins of arbitrary power, and depress the
What is the use of sending money to such a territory ? already weak representatives of popular election. As for the There is use. We have the assurance of Sir Thomas Wade, a several States of the Empire, they have an equal interest in perfect authority on such a matter, that money can be resisting what they deem another attack upon their separate directly utilised for the relief of the people in this way. The prerogatives, and a fresh means of aggrandising the central famine being a drought-famine, falls first upon districts far authority at their expense.
from the ports and from the rivers, lonely places whither grain Beset by such a host of adversaries as this, backed, as they cannot be carried, whatever may be the price that a starving are, by a solid grievance, and fortified by the natural unpopu- population is ready to offer. The Chinese are well aware of larity which the proposed tax must excite, it is obviously this, and when once the famine has set in, the lower necessary for Prince Bismarck to show some very good grounds classes swarm down towards the livers and the ports for his propositions. He does so by proving, in the first place, in such numbers that, but for the singular obedience of the the absolute need of fresh supplies ; and secondly, by attempt- people to the officials who distribute them over the villages, ing to make out that no other means of procuring these sup- the crowds would be unmanageable. There is always a little plies is so easy, natural, just, and satisfactory as that which he
grain at these accessible places—a fact mentioned also by Mr. suggests. He disposes at a blow of all ideas of an increase in Mayers, the Chinese Secretary of Legation—but the famine- direct taxation, by reverting to the well-known objections struck and terror-struck immigrants have no money, or credit, always urged against this sort of impost ; and on the other or energy. Then the relief organisation steps in. Here a four points—the justice of the tobacco-tax, its utility, its Protestant Missionary and there a Catholic Father, now a obviousness, and the facility with which it can be levied—he native Christian and now a decent official, distributes the enters into details which may be grouped together and ex- barest modicum of food—seven-tenths of a pint of grain a plained in a few words.
day seems to be a usual average—to keep the people alive ; The assumption that Germany is under-taxed in the matter and if typhus, and the cold, and the horrible malaria generated of tobacco is not, of course, one about which there need be by their numbers all spare them, they live on. The sum re- any doubt. The thing is a question of statistics, and the quired to sustain each family is incredibly small. We have statistics show without possibility of doubt that on this first reason to believe, though we have not Sir T. Wade's direct and essential point the Chancellor has complete reason on his authority for the statement, that each sovereign will save one side. The duties upon tobacco in Germany amount to 12s. 2d. person, and the donors may rely on the most careful distribu- a cwt. for unmanufactured tobacco, £1 13s. 6d. for manu- tion of their aid. Each family saved, it must be remembered, factured sorts ; and about £3 for cigars. The only rates is a real gain to the State. We are accustomed to think of the which are lower than these are those levied in Belgium and Chinese as a people too apart from us for full sympathy, as if they Holland, in which latter country they are so ridiculously small were inhabitants of some half-developed planet, and there is a as to be hardly worth mentioning. Comparing rates current notion, derived from Californian sources, that they are all bad ; in other countries, it is found that they vary from about £2 but these people who are dying are civilised, are the peasantry in Denmark to £35 in Austria, if regard is had only to the who make China so rich, industrious, sober, and orderly beyond unmanufactured leaf, while the duty on manufactured tobacco European example. They are not the scum of the cities, far and cigars varies in a like proportion, some countries being, less criminals or "roughs," but decent people, whose lives are however, like Austria and England, far more indulgent as valuable as those of Europeans, and who, though more re- to cigars, while others, like Russia, charge enormous signed to the decrees of fate, suffer just as Europeans would. rates for this luxury, bat are comparatively lenient to simple Nothing is wasted that is expended on their relief, and the tobacco. It may be taken as a thoroughly well established duty of relieving falls, first of all, on the Anglo-Chinese, who, fact, therefore, that the impost in Germany, whether resulting we believe, are doing it, then on those who drink tea, and then from import dues or internal taxation, is exceptionally low, on all who feel that the claim of humanity covers even the and might be raised without at all violating any principles of Mongolian third of the human race. To use a strong expres- abstract justice which a financier might choose to set up. sion of Sir Thomas Wade, while repeating recently some of the With regard to the facility with which Germany could afford facts he knew, " It is a great ship on fire," and to pause to to pay a higher tax, there is little greater difficulty in giving
think about class, colour, or creed, is futile and inhuman. an affirmative answer. No one who has ever travelled in a German railway-carriage, or sat an evening in a German students' club, will for one moment deny that Germans smoke THE TOBACCO-TAX IN GERMANY. too much. The excess of nicotine which they imbibe does not
understand why a vehement opposition is expected, and indeed We arrive at the question how far the proposed tax would already apparent, on the part of the National Liberals. The fulfil its destined purpose in regenerating the national finances. effect of the complete scheme, when carried out, would be to And the simplest answer to this inquiry is to be found in the strengthen immensely the hands of the Central Government, fact that the Germans are a nation of smokers. From the and to give it pro tanto, in as far as its financial resources were time when Frederick William I. started his tobacco-club till augmented, that which Charles II. and Louis XIV. used to call now, every soul in the country, from prince to peasant and
year following to less than 4 lb., there is a constant tendency to revert to the standard of consumption which in a temporary flush of prosperity has been attained. To provide tobacco for this enormous number of smokers, there are in cultivation in the empire some 74,000 acres of land. The tobacco grown within the Empire provides, practically speaking, for the whole needs of the consumers, for although Germany imports a vast quantity, notably of the inferior sorts, yet it exports annually in its turn a somewhat larger quantity, these exports being, of course, of a still coarser quality than that which is delivered at the ports. An estimate of the quantity of cigars and tobacco brought into Germany may be formed from a glance at the statistics of the port of Bremen, at which there paid duty in 1874 one million cwts. of unmanufactured leaf, 215,000 cwts. of manufactured tobacco, and 362 millions of cigars, the number of the latter having suddenly decreased in that year from 56 millions, or 30 per cent. It must be admitted, how- -ever, that no other port in Germany shows anything like such figures, and probably all of them together do not import as large a quantity as Bremen alone. It results from these data that it will not require a great augmentation either in the Excise or Customs duties, or both together, to increase the German Imperial revenues by a very respectable amount. By adding only one mark to the tax on the production or con- sumption of tobacco, and increasing the import duties in a like proportion, some two millions would be gained, while by doubling each of these imports the Chancellor would obtain the two and half zillions upon which he seems to count.
This is, however, supposing that the consumption and im- portation of tobacco remained pretty much the same after the new taxes had been imposed as they were in the preceding years. Is there any reason to suppose that this would be the case ? Herein lies the gist of this, as of most other fiscal pro- jects. The Germans are, it is true, " a nation of smokers," but are they too securely wedded to the practice to be able to diminish the huge mass of tobacco which they burn every day and every year ? Those who cultivate the plant in Wur- temburg and Baden and in the Prussian provinces make a living out of their labours, but they do not grow rich upon it. Would they continue the cultivation, if a new impediment were thrown in the way of their profits ? On the other hand, are there not signs that the revenue from tobacco is precarious and insecure ? We have seen that the consumption per man sank suddenly in one year from 5-1-1b. to 4 lb., and that in the same year the importation of cigars to Bremen declined from 56,000,000 to 36,500,000. It may be added that the general revenue from tobacco sank in that same year (1874) from above 33,000,000 of thalers to very little over 23,000,000. Whatever may be the various reasons alleged for those changes, one thing seems beyond dispute, — that the consumption of tobacco in the country is very fluc- tuating in its amount, and that the demand for it is very sensitive, and liable to be easily and seriously affected. Everything, or almost everything, that has been said upon the last subject is applicable to the proposal to estab- lish an ultimate Government monopoly. By undertaking the exclusive trade in tobacco, the Government would, according to Prince Bismarck's calculation, make some twelve or fifteen millions sterling a year, instead of the comparatively petty revenue which it now derives from the duties. But to assume the exclusive privilege would be a very strong measure, and the boldest financier would not dream of attempting it at one stroke. The other countries where such a monopoly is enjoyed are France, Spain, Italy, and Turkey, and in these it has been established either by slow steps, or very long ago. In France the monopoly was assumed by the Government two hundred years ago, and only inter- rupted during the great Revolution, for a period of ten years. The French have acquiesced easily in the system, because they are rich enough to afford it, and are content to regard smoking as a luxury rather than a necessity. They do not grumble, because, they have always been accustomed to the price they pay and the way in which they pay it, and in all questions of national finance that is most easy which has been longest regarded as the rule. It is a very different question whether a poorer nation, which regards tobacco as almost a prime necessity of life, would admit with ease or advantage a fiscal arrangement to which they are altogether unused, and against which the objections above mentioned, and perhaps a great many others, may be raised on every side. If it is to do so, it can only be by degrees, and after a course of gradual pre- paration. And this is the reason why Prince Bismarck has elected to begin with a very thin end of the wedge.
Previous page
