No. 301.
Mr. Adee
to Mr. Evarts.
Madrid, July 23, 1877. (Received August 9.)
Sir: I transmit, hereto annexed, copy of the Gaceta of the 12th instant, containing the law of estimates and appropriations for the current fiscal year ending June 30, 1878, as finally passed by the Córtes and sanctioned by the King. A duplicate copy of the paper will go to you by book-post.
There have been, after all, numerous modifications in the budget since its presentation to the chambers by Mr. García Barzanallana, as reported in my No. 506, of the 29th of April last. The very compactness of the majority on which the government relied for the approval of its measures made it the more advisable to give heed to suggestions emanating from that majority, and a flood of amendments poured in during the long debate on the bill. Hence, the discussion was not concluded until the 10th instant, when a part of the fiscal year comprehended in the project had already elapsed.
Immediately on the passage of the law, the minister of finance, Mr. José García Barzanallana, tendered his resignation, and was transferred to the council of state, his portfolio being conferred upon the Marquis de Orovio.
It does not seem necessary to do more than give a hasty glance at the changes introduced in the budget in its passage through the Córtes.
The total receipts are now estimated at 734,360,580 pesetas, and the expenditures at 734,485,458.81 pesetas, showing an estimated deficit of 124,878.81 pesetas.
The stamp-tax on sales of goods is suppressed, and instead thereof the industrial quota of tradesmen and vendors will be increased 15 per cent. (Article 12.)
[Page 518]The impost of cédulas personales remains unchanged. (Article 16, formerly 10.)
The provisions affecting imports and exports (articles 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, and 37) are materially changed from the original scheme.
The proposed export-tax on native wines has been abandoned, the opposition thereto having been all but universal. Brandies coming from abroad are to be temporarily sur-taxed 20 pesetas for each hectoliter, petroleum and mineral oils 12.50 pesetas the 100 kilograms, edible oil 8 pesetas the 100 kilograms, palm-oil, cotton-seed oil, and certain others 25 pesetas the 100 kilograms (a prohibitory tax, it may be observed), and last of all foreign coal and coke are to pay a fiscal import duty of 2.50 pesetas per ton.
The customs tariff is to be reformed as provided in the former article 19 of the original bill, and the authorization to impose an export-tax on unmanufactured cork is revoked.
Articles 23 and 24 of the old project are combined into one, as follows:
Article 35. The government is hereby authorized to impose an additional tax on import-duties and on those of navigation for the products, vessels, and exports of those countries which may in any way especially prejudice our vessels and our commerce, and also to withhold the application of the reductions of duties which may result from the reform of the customs tariffs from all save the products and exports of the nations which concede to Spain the treatment of the most favored nation.
(The revised tariff has now been published, and will form the subject of another dispatch.)
I translate also the following:
Article 36. The government is likewise empowered to impose an additional charge upon the import-duties of American and Asiatic products coming directly from foreign depots in Europe.
Article 37. The modifications which, in virtue of the twenty-eighth and following articles, may be introduced in the imports now in force, shall not be applied to merchandise and vessels duly shown to have left the ports of departure before the promulgation of this law.
Article 38. The minister of state is authorized, in concert with the minister of hacienda, to revise the consular tariffs, with the object of increasing the revenues of the state without grave prejudices to commerce and navigation.
I venture to commend to your especial attention and study these several provisions affecting the foreign commerce of Spain.
The remaining articles of the law, Nos. 39 to 75, are of a municipal or domestic character, their chief interest lying in the ingenuity which finds room for the imposition of additional taxation on products and industries which seemed already burdened to the utmost.
I have, &c.,