the municipal boards of assessments. The income tax in 1897B1898
yielded a revenue of kr. 4,401,137, 69 % whereof was paid by the
towns, and 31 % by the country districts.
The indirect taxes are as follows
Customs duties, liquor tax, malt tax, stamp duties on documents
and playing-cards, and departmental and judicial fees.
Customs duties. The customs system of the Norwegian state,
which at the beginning was moderately protectionist, gradually
changed after the forties, but especially in the sixties and the beginning
of the seventies, into a free-trade system. The customs duties
were thus to a great extent transferred from the products of agriculture
and industry to a few articles of especial fiscal importance,
the duties on sugar, tobacco, and coffee being increased, while the
duties charged on products of handicraft and industry, especially
textile goods, were considerably lowered, the duties on cereals
were reduced to a trifle, and the duties on live stock and meat
were entirely repealed. In the mean time the severe depression
of several branches of trade, following the flourishing times during
the first half of the seventies, produced among the manufacturers
of the country a protectionist movement, which gradually increased
in strength, and, in connection with the agrarian movement which
was just then gathering strength, in the years from 1888 to 1896
succeeded in introducing into the customs tariff a number of sporadic
changes in a protectionist direction, and finally, in 1897, in carrying
through an entirely new customs tariff, by which protectionism
has again become the controlling force in our customs policy. The
rates of the tariff are, however, even though they, also for a few
other articles than articles of luxury, amount to one third of the
value or more, on the whole moderate. Roughly speaking, as
regards half-completed manufactures, in so far as the latter are
incumbered with duties, they amount to 5 % or 10 % of the value.
For agricultural products (apart from cereals which, with the
exception of malt, are either free or charged with a very low
duty), they amount to from 10 % to 30 % of thé value, and for
completed products of industry or handicraft, to between 15 °/o
and 30 % of the value. The system of free entry being allowed
to raw materials imported for industrial purposes, has in most
cases been maintained; and the same rule applies to some halfcompleted
manufactures, while on the other hand higher duties
have been retained on a few fiscal articles. Thus the duty on
sugar has been fixed at 20 ore, on tobacco stems and leaves at
kr. 1.75, on snuff at kr. 3, on cigars and cigarettes at kr. 4.50,
on smoking and chewing tobacco at kr. 2.10, on coffee at 30 ore,
on malt at 50-J are, all per kilogram, and on alcoholie liquors at
kr. 2.54 for each liter containing 100 °/o alcohol.
In the calendar year 1898, the import duties were distributed
in the following manner between the different articles:
Sugar . . . . . . . . kr. 5,912,000
Tobacco. . . . ■ : . . . . . . . . » 3,502,000
■ Coffee -. . . . . .__. . •. . .. . 3 , 2 1 5 , 0 0 0
Malt . . . . i. v ' ........................ .... » 2,794,000
Woollen goods . . . \ A . ■ . y A: 2,125,000
Alcohol and alcoholic beverages........... - ; * 1,726,000
Meat A A? 1,453.000
Cotton goods . . t- . . . . . . . . .» 1,331,000
Other manufactures. . . . . . . •' » 1,215,000
Cereals (excepting malt) . . .. > 1,169,000
Wine. . . . .. . . . . . '. • ». 674,000
Sole leather . . . . . . , . . . » 554,000
Other articles. . . . . . . . . . » : 8,298,000
Total . . . . kr. 33,968,000
Among th e . customs duties, apart from the import duties, is
included a tax on shipping, called the loading and lighthouse
tax, which, with a few exceptions, is paid by vessels importing
goods to the. country, and amounts to 80 ore for each ton discharged.
Vessels exporting goods from the country pay a tax
which amounts to 50 ore for each ton of goods loaded.
During the financial year 1897—1898, the ( import duties
amounted to kr. 29,713,790, the loading and lighthouse tax to
kr. 1,813,284, and the other receipts from customs duties to kr.
60-,019. The total customs revenue thus amounted to kr. 31,587,092,
or a little more than 2/s of the whole amount raised by taxation.
For the sake of comparison, it may be stated .that the items of
the customs revenue were:
in the financial years 1880 to 1885, on an average kr. 18,629,915
» 1885 - 1890, — — » 20,795.134
— » 1890 - 1895, • — AAA: A » 21,759,504
— year 1895 - 1896, . ■ » 23,311,101
A i. 1896 - 1897, . . » 26,653,399