g therefore taken into due consideration,
and the ordinary and extraordinary discounts made from the total amount
of tributes, the real sum remaining, or the net annual proceeds of
the above branch, have usually not been rated at more than $190,000
and $200,000; a sum respectively extremely small, and which possibly
might be doubled, without the necessity of recurring to any other
measure than a standing order for the collecting of the tributes in
money, as by this means the variety of expenses and complications above
enumerated, would be avoided, and the king's revenue no longer exposed
to any other deficiencies than those arising out of the insolvency
of the sub-collectors and their sureties, or casual risks, and the
trifling charges paid for the conveyance of the money. If in opposition
to this it should be alleged that it would be advisable to except some
of the provinces from this general rule, owing to the advantages the
government might derive from certain tributes being paid in kind,
I do not hesitate to answer that I see no reason whatever why this
should be done, because, if, for example, any quality of rigging
or sail cloth is annually required, it would be easy to obtain it
either by early contracts, or by laying in the articles at the current
market price. Indeed, all supplies which do not rest on this footing,
would be to defraud the natives of the fruits of his industry, and in
the final result this would be the same as requiring of him double or
triple tribute, contrary to the spirit of the law, which unfortunately
is too frequently the case under the existing system.

[Preferability of tribute in money.] Considering this affair in
another point of view, it would be easy for me to demonstrate, if it
were necessary, the mistaken idea that the native is benefited by
receiving in kind the amount of the tribute he has to pay, at the
low prices marked in the tariff used as a standard, by showing the
extortions and brokerage, if I may so term it, to which the practice
gives rise on the part of the district collectors. It will, however,
suffice to call the attention of my readers to the smallness of
the sum constituting the ordinary tribute, when reduced to money,
in order for them to be convinced that it would be superfluous,
as well as hazardous, to attempt to point out how this branch might
be rendered more productive to the state and at the same time less
burdensome to the contributors, more particularly wh