The Russian Government, pressed by the great outlay on the
famine, by the decline in certain receipts, caused also by the famine, and by its military expenditure, is once more in straits for money. Having quarrelled with the Jews, it fails to raise loans on reasonable terms, and is resorting both to issues of paper and to fresh taxation. According to the St. Petersburg correspondent of the Times, the increase of burdens will be very great, the Government having decided to raise the excise duties on brandy, beer, tobacco, matches, and petroleum, together with the duty on cotton and the trade- licence tax ; and also to impose new taxes on inhabited houses, forests, salt, and all exemptions from military service. The amounts to be raised are not given ; but the increase in the price of brandy, the house-tax, and the salt-tax, will reach the whole body of the people, and may create severe discontent. The taxation is already heavy, and the arrears a great mass, and there is a point beyond which Russians must not be skinned. At the same time, it is to be observed that the expectation of a breakdown in Russian finance is very old, and has never been realised; that the people universally take the Government paper ; and that it is taxes on land, not other articles, which in Russia, as in India, excite popular commotion.
Previous page
