riod
were $238,660,008.93, leaving a surplus revenue of $30,340,577.69.
This has substantially supplied the requirements of the sinking fund
for that year. The estimated revenues of the current fiscal year are
$265,500,000, and the estimated expenditures for the same period are
$232,430,643.72. If these estimates prove to be correct, there will be
a surplus revenue of $33,069,356.28--an amount nearly sufficient for
the sinking fund for that year. The estimated revenues for the next
fiscal year are $269,250,000. It appears from the report that during
the last fiscal year the revenues of the Government, compared with the
previous year, have largely decreased. This decrease, amounting to the
sum of $18,481,452.54, was mainly in customs duties, caused partly
by a large falling off of the amount of imported dutiable goods and
partly by the general fall of prices in the markets of production of
such articles as pay _ad valorem_ taxes.

While this is felt injuriously in the diminution of the revenue, it
has been accompanied with a very large increase of exportations. The
total exports during the last fiscal year, including coin, have
been $658,637,457, and the imports have been $492,097,540, leaving a
balance of trade in favor of the United States amounting to the sum of
$166,539,917, the beneficial effects of which extend to all branches
of business.

The estimated revenue for the next fiscal year will impose upon
Congress the duty of strictly limiting appropriations, including the
requisite sum for the maintenance of the sinking fund, within the
aggregate estimated receipts.

While the aggregate of taxes should not be increased, amendments
might be made to the revenue laws that would, without diminishing the
revenue, relieve the people from unnecessary burdens. A tax on tea and
coffee is shown by the experience not only of our own country, but
of other countries, to be easily collected, without loss by
undervaluation or fraud, and largely borne in the country of
production. A tax of 10 cents a pound on tea and 2 cents a pound on
coffee would produce a revenue exceeding $12,000,000, and thus enable
Congress to repeal a multitude of annoying taxes yielding a revenue
not exceeding that sum. The internal-revenue system grew out of the
necessities of the war, and most of the legislation imposing taxes
upon domestic products under this system has been repealed. By the
substitution of a tax on tea and coffee all forms of intern