FINANCES. The condition of Italian finance is the country's blight. The enormous debts that the Government of United Italy had to assume. the costly wars waged to bring about the unifi cation, the new debts incurred for public works. and the eonstantly growing expenditure for the army and navy, have all led to the accumulation of such heavy burdens that there is a distressing state of affairs. Although the annual budgets of the Government usually show a surplus, this is often achieved with the help of loans and other objectionable means, and always through burden some taxation. The indirect taxes include excise, customs, and octroi duties. To these should be added the revenues derived from the tobacco, salt, quinine, and lottery monopolies. These taxes and revenues altogether yield more than forty per cent. of the total revenue. The direct taxes, in cluding a land, an income, and a house tax, furnish about 28 per cent. of the total revenue. The inheritance tax, registration and stamp duties bring in about thirteen per cent. more. The remainder (19 per cent.) is obtained from incomes from all kinds of public property and Government works, such as public domains, rail ways, telegraphs, posts, etc.
The largest item of expenditure is the interest on the public debt—nearly $140,000,000 per annum, or per cent. of the total ordinary expenditure. The next largest item is the army and navy, which exceeded $76,600.000 in 1902 (or 231/2 per cent. of the total expenditure). By con trast the expenditure on public instruction dur ing the same year was $9,600,000 (or less than 3 per cent.), and on agriculture, industry, and commerce combined. but $2,000,000 (or about one-half of one per cent.). Since 1885 the rev enue and expenditure of the Government. hare remained practically the same, as is shown by the following table of the budget since the exist ence of the Kingdom in its present limits: To what an extent all other public interests have been neglected for the sake of military ex penditure may be seen from the table below, which shows the increase of expenditure for mili tary purposes, for the payment of the debt, and the total expenditure: ered indispensable. In 1899 the revenue of the
communes of Italy amounted to $128,401,829, while that of the provinces was $26,335,265. The largest items in the communal revenue are (1) the gate tax or octroi, which is partly a duty on certain articles not otherwise taxed, and partly a surtax not to exceed 50 per cent. of that levied upon certain commodities at the frontier; and (2) a surtax upon lands and buildings, also lim ited to a maximum of 50 per cent. of that levied by the State. Of less importance are the levies made upon family incomes, live stock, etc. The bulk of the provincial tax is secured from a sur tax upon land and buildings, which is likewise limited to 50 per cent. of the State assessment. The expenditure and indebtedness of both the communes and the provinces have greatly in creased during the last two decades.
As an illustration of the immense tax burden in Italy may be cited the land tax, which alto gether, national, provincial, and communal, ammuns to nearly one-fourth of the land-owner's revenue. Under the cadastral survey which served as the basis of the land assessment prior to 1886, the burden of this tax fell with great inequality upon different parts of the country. But a law passed in 1886 authorized a new sur vey, which was quickly made in the provinces which were unjustly burdened, thereby securing a measure of relief. But the provinces which would not profit by the survey have been slow to make it (in some provinces the increase amounted to over 90 per cent.). Hence the revenue yielded by time land was lessened in consequence of the law. The income tax, which is proportional, does not apply to incomes obtained from the land, but only upon those from movable capital and from labor.