ssible to ascertain what proportion
the impost on the tree would then bear with regard to the value of
the fruit, the error that might accrue would be of little moment, as
long as precautions were taken to adopt a very low rate of comparison,
and a proportionably equitable one as the basis of taxation. Supposing
then that the price of the bonga should decline from twenty-five reals,
at which it is now sold in the monopoly stores, to fifteen reals per
thousand, in the general market, and a tax of one-fourth real should
be laid on each tree valued at two hundred bonga nuts, it is clear
that this would be equal to no more than 8 1/2%; or, what is the same,
the tax would be in the proportion one to twelve with the proceeds of
each tree, and the more the value of the fruit was raised, the more
would the rate of contribution diminish. It ought at the same time
to be observed that, under the above estimate, that is, supposing the
price of the article to remain at fifteen reals, the 8 1/2% at which
rate the tax is regulated, would not perhaps exceed five or six per
cent on a more minute calculation; in the first place, because at the
time of making out the returns of the trees, [Exception of immature
and aged trees.] those only ought to be set down which are in their
full vigor, excluding such as through the want or excess of age only
yield a small proportion of fruit; and in the second, because in
the numbers registered, the trees would only be rated at two hundred
although it is well known they usually yield three hundred, in order
by this means the better to avoid all motives of complaint. In this
point of view, and by adopting similar rules of probability, it seems
to me that the government would not risk much by an attempt to change
the present system into a tax levied on the tree itself, on a plane
similar to the one above proposed; more particularly by doing it in
a temporary manner, and rendering it completely subservient to the
corrections subsequent experience might suggest in this particular.

[Difficulty of estimating probable revenue.] The difficulty being,
in this manner, overcome, with regard to the prudent determination
of the rate at which the proprietor of the bonga plantations ought
to contribute, let us now proceed to estimate, by approximation, the
annual sum that would thus be obtained. As, however, this operation
is unfortunately complicated, and in great measure depends on the
previous knowledge of the t