twenty-five cents per 100 dollars, and is imposed on the real value of lands, which are divided into ten classes ac

was imposed on the principal exports of the country, skins and furs, and was afterwards extended to liquors, and other goods and merchandise imported or exported. In 1702, an act was passed for raising L. 2000, for an expedition against St Augustine, and other acts for additional sums, for various purposes, were passed in 1708, 1710, 1713. In 1714 a specific duty was laid on all negro slaves imported. In 1715, an act passed for raising L. 30,000 from the estates, real and personal, of the inhabitants. In 1716, an act for L. 35,000; in 1717, for L. 30,000; in 1718, for L. 30,000; in 1719, an act for L. 70,000, on lands and negroes. During the first eighteen years of the eighteenth century, the taxes increased to L. 215,000, owing to measures of offensive and defensive war. Interest being so high as 10 per cent. a land bank was established in 1712, as a means of obtaining money on easier terms. The issues of this bank raised the rate of exchange and the price of produce to such a degree, that in the first year articles advanced 150, and the second 200 per cent. The currency was at this time in a very bad state. In New York and North Carolina the dollar was 8s.; in other places, 6s.; in some, 7s. 6d. In South Carolina the pound was 12s. 6d. and so great was the depreciation of paper money, that it was finally at 7 for 1. In 1736, the House of Commons authorized an issue of L. 210,000, in bills of credit, to be lent at 8 per cent. In 1746 another sum of L. 210,000 was issued, on the same terms, by the same authority. In ten years, from 1755 to 1765, which followed the commencement of the war between France and England, the taxes paid were L. 2,020,652, of which L. 535,303 were raised in 1760, during the period of the Cherokee war. Between this date and the revolutionary war, during twenty years of peace, the taxes had diminished to one fourth, or L. 375,578. In 1770, L. 70,000 were raised for defraying the expences of the court-houses and gaols. In 1774, certificates were given to the public creditors, that their demands should be provided for in the next tax bill; and those certificates passed for full value. In 1775,

1

cording to their quality and situation. Slaves are taxed at fifty cents per head; free negroes, mulattoes,

some persons of large estates issued notes payable to the bearer, of which the capital amounted to L. 128,000. An immense quantity of paper money was issued at the commencement of the Revolution, of which the depreciation is known to all. In 1783, the state legislation formed a table of depreciation between good money and paper money, in each month from April 1777 to May 1780, to serve as a rule in settling claims and contracts. It appears from this table, that, in January 1778, it required L. 221; in January 1779, L.761; in January 1780, L. 3775; and, in May following, when, by the surrender of Charleston, bills of credit ceased to circulate, it required L. 5248 of paper money to make the value of L. 100 in good money. In 1777, one third of a dollar per head was first levied on negroes, and the same tax on every 100 acres of land. In 1778 there was another tax of this kind nominally ten times greater than the former; but at the time of paying, not worth more than double. In 1779, a third similar tax, of twenty paper dollars, was levied, nearly equal to a dollar in specie about the time of payment. After the departure of the English, Sterling mo. ney was continued; and, for the purpose of retaining the specie in circulation, twopence was added to the dollar, and ninepence to the guinea. When the debts growing out of the war were liquidated, an acknowledgment was given to the creditor by the state, in form of an indenture, on which interest was paid by another paper, called a special indenture, issued for five years, and receivable in taxes, annually imposed for the redemption of this debt. This furnished annually 200,000 or 300,000 dollars. Bills of credit, to the amount of L. 100,000, were afterwards issued, lent on interest to the inhabitants in small sums, on a mortgage of land, or a deposit of plate; and the merchants agreed to take these bills at par with gold and silver. This accommodated the borrowers, and gave to the state 30,000 dollars of annual interest. After the close of the war, it was found that the expences of Carolina, in behalf of the United States, amounted to 1,447,173 dollars, besides the 4,000,000 of its debt previously assumed. For that sum certificates of stock

and mustees, between the years of sixteen and fifty, at two dollars. The average price of slaves is 500 dollars. Lands, lots, and buildings, within any city, village, or borough, pay twenty-five cents ad valorem on every 100 dollars. Stock in trade, factorage, professions, faculties, and employments, pay fifty cents per cent. * Absentees pay a double tax. Money at interest of seven per cent. is assessed at the rate of twenty-five cents on every 100 dollars, and a proportionate sum for a loan interest. Sales by public auction, on all ships, boats, or other vessels, lands, houses, and slaves, are taxed at one per cent. Horses, cattle, goods, wares, and merchandise, at three per cent. Licences to

were given to the state, which have been regularly paid. The new constitution forbid the issuing of bills of credit. Banks were established, of which the bills exchangeable at sight for gold and silver supplied the want of a circulating medium. Since the Revolution, the current expences of the state have been defrayed by taxes. The first, in 1783, was one dollar a-head on negroes, and the same sum on every 100 acres of land. In 1785, the lands hitherto classed according to the quantity, were now considered in relation to their value, of which the maximum was twenty-six dollars per acre, the minimum twenty cents. In 1799, the direction of all matters relating to the revenue was entrusted to a comptroller, whose duty it is to furnish an annual report on the real state of the finances. In 1804, the balance due to the state amounted to 754,755 dollars, which enabled the legislature to subscribe 100,000 dollars in stock to the State Bank, and to establish and endow the South Carolina college, the expences of which are defrayed by the profits of the former.

* Widows, orphans, and unmarried women, having no other means of livelihood, are exceptions.

+ Clergymen, schoolmasters, schoolmistresses, mechanics, and charitable societies, excepted.

hawkers and pedlars, 250 dollars. Theatrical performers in the city of Charleston, 428 dollars, and 107 dollars for every other place within the state. The lands taxed according to their value form three great divisions; the first reaches from the coast to the extent of tide water; the second, to the falls of the rivers; the third, to the extremity of the state. Each division is subdivided into twenty-one different kinds of soil; the first quality of which is at L. 6, the poorest at Is. per acre, and one half per cent. is levied on this value.

From the year 1807 to 1813, a period of six years, the average income, from every source of revenue, did not exceed 313,026 dollars. The average disbursements for the same period were 320,803 dollars. * The civil list, in 1801, was as follows:

Increase in the Value of Property.-A tract of high land, of 140 acres, to which is annexed from 150

• Report of the comptroller-general. The taxes are not collected by the sheriffs, but by persons appointed for the purpose, who receive 24 per cent. on the amount collected at Charleston, and double this allowance in all other places.

to 200 acres of salt-marsh, was sold, in 1713, for L. 305; in 1726, for L. 1750; in 1728, for L.2000; in 1768, for L. 2792. Land adjacent to this tract was sold, some years ago, for L. 100 Sterling per acre. Every thing has increased in proportion,-the rent of houses, the price of slaves, the wages of labourers, the expence of living, and of education. In 1740, corn was rated by a committee of the assembly at one fourth of a dollar the bushel; rice 5s. Sterling per cwt. In 1760, rice was 1 dollar, 53 cents, per cwt.; Carolina flour, 2 dollars, 80 cents; tallow, 10 cents per lb. ; pork, 7 dollars per barrel; salt, 25 cents per bushel. * Interest of Money.-By a law of the assembly in 1721, no higher rate of interest than ten per cent. per

*Price of Articles at Georgetown in January 1816.