That method of raising revenue for the support of government
which we understand by taxation marks a well advanced
stage of economic life and is of comparatively recent origin
among Germanic peoples. It was unknown while our English ancestors
lived upon the continent of Europe and for many centuries
after they had settled in their new home Society, and, as a
consequence, government had not as yet become differentiated.
Some of the most important duties, such as the defence of the
kingdom, the care of the bridges and forts, were performed by
personal service on the part of the people. Other duties incumbent
upon the modern state, those which require the greatest
expenditure, had not arisen. The private and public revenues of
king were not as yet distinguished. The revenue of his
private estates afforded him a considerable income and, in addition,
he enjoyed the usufruct of the folkland. The growth of
the feudal system gave rise to various other sources of income,
and besides these there were payments for special privileges
such as markets. The king also enjoyed rights such as that of
carriage and purveyance, for example.
Taxation as we conceive it formed no part of the system.
"Only in a condition of the deepest degradation, under
Athelstan the Unready, could the national assembly be induced
2to levy a tribute upon the country to buy off the horde of Danish
pirates."[1] Taxation developed rapidly after the Norman conquest,
but as late as the reign of James I out of a total revenue
of about £450,000, £180,000 came from dues on feudal tenures,
and the crown lands, rented at much below their real value,
yielded £32,000.[2]
Feudal dues remained an important source of revenue until
the time of Charles II. All through the early period "the
taxes voted were 'aids' and 'subsidies'; something to help the
king eke out his income, as it were. Systematic taxation as a
right--nay, as a duty owed by the citizen to the State--was an
idea entertained with the utmost reluctance."[3] Even after national
taxation had become established the local bodies continued
to depend on personal service (or payments in kind) to fulfil
their military, police, or judicial functions. It was the
apportionment among individuals of fines incurred by the various
local divisions for the neglect of these duties which
first gave rise to the county rate, the hundred rate, and the
tithing rate or town levy. From the Tudor legislation of the
Sixteenth and early Seventeenth centuries local taxation received
a definite form and character. The poor law of 43 Elizabeth
which established the parish poor rate became the basis of
the system. To this rate all others tended to conform.[4] In
3early New England the conditions were much the same in regard
to taxation as in early England. The functions of government
were few and simple and often easiest fulfilled by personal service
on the part of the citizens. This was the case with respect
to the maintenance of the roads, and with military service.
The army was the folk under arms. The duties of public
officers, whether of town or colony, could not have been burdensome
and in many cases acceptance of office was looked upon
as a duty to be performed without, or with small, recompense, refusal
being accompanied by a fine. A considerable portion of
public services such as those of the executive officers of the
courts (and even of the judicial officers) were naturally recompensed
by fees. Pauperism the great burden of the older
country was hardly possible where land was abundant and labor
scarce.
What has been said or New England in general applies with added force to
Rhode Island, for here the political body concerned itself as a
rule with neither religion nor education.[5] Taxation was regarded
for a long time not as the principal means for meeting ordinary
expenditures but as something irregular and supplementary.
Taxation in Rhode Island, 1636-1689. — The towns before the Union.
4
Unlike Massachusetts the towns in Rhode Island remained
the supreme authority under the king for some years before any
central government was established by charter.[6] The first
delegated government established in Providence was in 1640.[7]
It was of the simplest nature. Five men were to be elected
quarterly, who, subject to the control of the town meeting, were
to have the disposal of lands and of the "townes stocke." Disputes
between citizens were to be settled by arbitrators appointed
either by the parties to the dispute, or by the five
"disposers," payment for their time spent to be made by the
"faultive" party.
Provision was also made for a clerk who was to receive
4d. for each cause that came to the town for trial and 12d.
for each deed prepared. All the inhabitants were to join in the
pursuit of a fugitive from justice.
The "townes stocke" was probably derived from fines and
payments for land by the new comers,[8] as there is no mention
of taxation. At the time of the union of the towns in 1647 the
delegates from Providence to the general court, which was to organize
the colonial government, were instructed to secure to the
town the reservation of certain rights in the management of
5their own affairs, but neither in these instructions nor in the
charter of very full powers afterwards granted to the town is
there any direct reference to taxation. In Portsmouth and
Newport the delegated power was in the hands of a judge and
elders. These towns probably depended on much the same sources
of revenue as did Providence; fines, fees, and payments for
land.[9] The political development however was more rapid on the
island than on the mainland and we early find in Portsmouth
traces of taxation as well as of comparative advancement in financial
affairs.[10] The records of the first year of the Newport
settlement show that their financial transactions were of importance
and that certain officers, such as the secretary and sergeant,
received considerable payments from the town.[11] There is
no record of the amount charged for land, nor any mention of
taxes, though it is not improbable that they existed in some form,
as the settlers in their first compact engage "to bear equal
charges answerable to our strength and estates in common."[12]
In 1640 Newport and Portsmouth came together under a common
government, each town retaining however its own organization,
and the control of its own affairs. The general officers were
a governor, a deputy governor, four assistants, two treasurers,
two constables, a secretary, and a sergeant. The magistrates
(governor, deputy governor, and assistants) fulfilled judicial
as well as executive functions. The only reference to the payment
6of officers is a provision in 1641 that the secretary
should have 3s. per day for his attendance upon the various
courts. In the following year this salary is taken away and
it is ordered that both the secretary and the sergeant be paid
by fees.[13]
The common expenses were met by drafts on the town treasurers.
The financial transactions of the united towns were
considerable in amount,[14] and there are several special taxes of
interest. It was ordered in 1640 that the treasury of each
town be always supplied with two barrels of gunpowder and with
bullets and match. Every man who killed a deer outside of his
own property was required to bring in one half to the treasury
under penalty of forty shillings. Thus the town derived a revenue
from the use of the public domains. In 1642 a bounty
of five pounds was offered on wolves, to pay which it was provided
that a rate should be levied on every man according to his
cattle;[15] the idea of a direct relation between the tax and the
service rendered. Bounties of this kind must have been one of
the principal sources of expense to the early settlers. On
wolves they were sometimes as high as £5, at other times not
more than 30s., while the rate on foxes was 6s. 8d.
The above seems to be substantially all that remains of
the financial records of the early towns. We find in them the
7conditions already noted; few needs, abundance of land, for sharing
which they could demand a payment of all new comers, payment
by fees or, if a tax was necessary, perhaps by a tax on a
particular class, as in the case of the bounty on wolves. Fines,
too, probably formed a not inconsiderable source of revenue, for
the home of religious freedom seems to have been to some extent
the home of those who desired freedom from the law as well.
When a general tax for the common good was levied the "estate
and strength" of each must have been a matter of common knowledge
impossible of concealment. It should be noted also that
neither at this time nor much later under the charter government
was the business of the treasury managed with that exactness
which we find today. Receipts were very often far behind
expenses and bills were frequently allowed to remain unpaid
until the money happened to be in the treasury.
The four towns first organized under a common government
in 1647 by virtue of what is known as the Patent, procured
through the efforts of Roger Williams in March 1643-4. Under
this government the colony remained, with the exception of an interruption
lasting from the spring of 1651 to August 1654,[16] until
it reorganized under the charter of 1663 which remained the
fundamental law of the colony and state for one hundred and
eighty years.
8The general officers under the Patent were a president
and four assistants, a general recorder, a treasurer, and a general
sergeant. There was also a committee composed of six
representatives from each town.[17] A general attorney and a solicitor
were added in 1650.[18] Under the charter of 1663 the
president was replaced by a governor and deputy governor, the
number of assistants was increased to ten, and, instead of the
committee of six from each town, provision was made for six deputies
from Newport, four each from Providence, Portsmouth, and
Warwick, and two each from all other towns that might come into
existence. The other general officers remained the same as
before. Under both governments the magistrates (president, or
governor and deputy governor, and assistants) performed judicial
functions.[19]
Public service was considered as a duty the fulfilment
of which was enforced by law[20] while payment, except where the
method of fees was available, was either not given at all or was
but daily wages for the time actually employed in the service.
Payment for service in the general assembly or the court of
trials did not exceed three shillings a day, with a much heavier
fine for non-attendance.[21] In addition to this a law of 1679
provided that diet and lodging should be furnished those in attendance,
the expense to be met out of the fines and forfeitures
9coming into the general treasury.
The services of the recorder, sergeant, and general attorney
were compensated by fees, though the first two seem also to
have had daily wages for their time employed, and their payment
was among the chief sources of expense at this early period.[22]
The general treasurer enjoyed a percentage, sometimes as high
as ten per cent, on the amount of his transactions.[23]
The care of the highways and the poor was given over to
the towns.[24] It is evident that the expenses of such a government
could not have been great.
So small were the financial operations during the earlier
years that the general treasurer "returned his accompte
into the courte for the year 1649, that he (had) received nothing
as Treasurer and therefore have nothing in his hande,"[25]
and Gregory Dexter, town clerk of Providence, could write to Sir
Henry Vane "Sir we have not known what an excise means. We
have almost forgotten what tythes are; yea, or taxes, either to
church or commonweale."[26]. In fact for many years fines and
forfeitures seem to have been the chief reliance for defraying
ordinary general expenses and they continued to form a principal
element of the receipts until the end of the century.[27].
Taxation however could not be entirely avoided. It was necessary
to place the colony in a position capable of defence and
10in 1650 each town was ordered to have in its magazine a certain
quantity of arms and ammunition, the amount assigned to each
town to be equally laid upon the inhabitants of the council
thereof "according to each man's strength and estate."[28] Taxes
were also levied to pay for powder and shot sent, over from England.[29]
Prisons were necessary and in 1655 the towns were ordered
to build two prisons, two cages, and two pairs of stocks,
one of each on the mainland and one on the island at a total
cost of £135.[30] Later court houses and a state house were required,
but on the whole taxation to meet ordinary expenses remained
almost ludicrously small until long after Rhode Island
had become a state. The exercise of the taxing power was reserved
for special occasions. The most important of these was
war; next came the support of an agent in England. Wars which
required the employment of a paid soldiery did not begin until
the end of the Seventeenth century; agents in England to look
after colonial interests were a necessity from the very beginning
of the colonies and lasted until the colonies became
states. Particularly was this the case in Rhode Island, small
in population and territory, its jurisdiction attacked on every
side by the claims of more powerful neighbors,[31] with a charter
containing grants of such unusual freedom that it was a constant
target for those opposed to colonial self-government.
11One of the acts of the first general assembly under the Patent
in 1647 was to assess upon the towns a tax of £100 to pay Roger
Williams for his exertions in procuring that document more than
three years before.[32] Williams in company with John Clarke again
went to England to secure the repeal of Coddington's commission.
The former returned on the accomplishment of his
mission but Clarke remained and cared for the interests of the
colony, and it was in connection with his efforts to secure the
charter of 1663 that taxation on any considerable scale began.
The following table will show the taxes levied from 1662 to the
fall of the Andros government in the spring of 1689. Those
taxes marked with a star were levied under the Andros régime.
The requirements of the militia service, which at this
time supplied the whole military power of the colony, should also
be taken into consideration. Militia systems had been established
in the towns before their union under one government.
The law of the island towns appointed eight training days a
year for each town with two general musters. A fine of five
shillings was imposed for non-appearance, and all men remaining
on the island for twenty days were liable to the service.[44]
The first assembly under the Patent enacted substantially this
same law for the whole colony[45] and it remained essentially
unchanged throughout the period of which we are treating. The
limits of age were fixed at sixteen and sixty years. The only
exemption from service were on account of "age, monage, sickness,
lameness, or publique barringe of office at that time
15in the commonwealth."[46] In 1665, the number of training
days was reduced to six and the fine for non-attendance was
gradually lowered to two shillings. Those who were able seem
to have been required to provide themselves with arms and ammunition,
but in case of inability they might be furnished by the
town council by means of rates or from the proceeds of military
fines.[47] The military requirement acted to a certain extent
as a poll tax, but the relations of the colony with the surrounding
Indians was for the most part friendly; the need of strict
military discipline does not seem to have been felt and various
references in the laws themselves tend to show that military
regulations were not strictly observed unless under the influence
of some pressing emergency when special laws requiring
their enforcement were passed; so that the military system seems
in general to have been but little of a burden.
It is evident that on the whole taxation daring this
period was light. The nominal amount of taxes of all kinds
levied between 1647 and 1689 was not much over £3600 or about
£84 a year. Nearly £1100 of this amount was levied between
June 1662 and October 1664 to meet the expenses of procuring
the charter. It was levied for the most part in "current pay"
and the sterling value, probably, did not exceed £600. The collection
also was extended over several years. Such taxation appears
16to us extremely light and even though we make, as is necessary,
a large allowance for the difference in economic conditions
then and now, the burden does not appear excessive,[48] while,
if we look at the remaining years, taxation is almost insignificant;[49]
it amounted on the average to but a few cents per capita
each year. In fact it was altogether too light to meet expenses.
The colony seems always to have been in debt. In
September 1673 the debts due from the treasury exceeded the
debts due to it by £71 9s. 2d.[50] Five years later the colony
was indebted for £437 3s. 10d.[51] In 1684 the Assembly affirm
that the existence of the government is endangered for the want
of funds in the treasury.[52] In several instances money to meet
public expenses was raised by contribution. In other cases
the necessary amounts were advanced by individuals, to be repaid
when the money should come into the treasury.[53] Though, judged
by amount, taxation at this period was unimportant, yet it is
here that we find the beginnings of a system which in theory at
least endures at the present time. We turn therefore to a
consideration of the law and administration of taxation.
Neither in the Patent nor in the Charter is there any
specific grant of the power to tax;[54] it seems to have been regarded
as implied in the grant of government, and was always
exercised by the highest legislative authority, under the Patent
17at first by the body of freemen assembled in general court,
and later by the court of commissioners, under the charter by
the general assembly consisting of the deputies and magistrates,
at first sitting as one body and later as two distinct houses.[55]
The legislature apportioned the tax among the separate towns
and required each town to collect and pay into the colony treasury
its quota by the time specified in the act ordering the
tax, the towns employing their own administrative machinery for
the purpose.[56] Perhaps the system is best summed up in a law
passed in 1655. "It is ordered, that ye raisinge of Generall
Taxes shall be ordered by ye Generall Court of Commissioners, as
they shall see cause from time to time as to ye sumes, and how
they shall be proportioned on each Towne; as alsoe, who in each
Towne shall have power to make ye rates, and who are to give
forth warrants for ye gatheringe of them; as alsoe in case of
any refusinge to pay, to order assistance to him or them that
are authorized to give warrants, or to gather ye rates as need
shall require."[57] In the case of the tax levied for the payment
of Roger Williams it was ordered in 1650 "that the councill of
ech Towne be enjoyned forthwith to proportion Mr. Williams that
debt and other summes apoynted thereto, according to every mans
strength and state;"[58] and for a while the town council seems to
have acted as assessors. Just when the duty of assessment
18began to be assigned to separate officers we do not know, probably
very early.[59] Collectors did not come until well into the
next century, their functions being exercised by the town constable
or sergeant.[60] During these early years custom rather
than law seems to have been the regulating power, and it doubtless
left much to be desired. An attempt to remedy these shortcomings
was made in 1673 when what may fairly be called the
first tax law was passed.[61] It throws much light on existing
conditions. The preamble recites "the great dissatisfaction
and irregularity that hath been by makeinge rates or raising a
common stock for public Charges in the Collony in general or
for any perticuler towne, and the great faileableness to accomplish
it, and great delaies in performance," and affirms that
public charges "should be born according to equity in estate
strength."[62] The law then provides that where a rate is
levied by the colony or a town every one shall "make a true
valluation of theire estate and strength, every thinge that
is any estate to them be vallued, which they are not rated for
to another place; and when for a pertickular towne rate, what
they are not rated to another towne." Each person is to pay
"to the Treasury to whome it doth belong" a certain amount upon
the pound of valuation as the assembly may order. Payment may
be made in "anything that is rateable, and it shall not be refused
19at the price as by two indifferent men vallued."[63] If any
do not rate themselves "the Generall Assembly may appoint men
to gess at their estate, and rate them as they should have done
themselves, and according to double the proportion for forbearance."[64]
"If the Assembly judge any have undervallued their
estates, such shall be required to give in to the Treasurer a
true forme of an inventory of all their estate and strength in
pertickular, and give in writeinge what proportion of estate and
strength in pertickular he guesseth tenn of his neighbours, nameinge
them tn pertickular, hath in estate and strength to his
estate and strength." If they do not comply they are to be
rated as those who have not rated themselves at all; "or if it
be proved that there is more due from any than they have rated
themselves, they are to pay double as much therefor (and for
the forbearance), as for it they should have rated themselves."
These latter provisions of the law clearly show the fact which
would render it possible to successfully carry our such a system
at that time. Each man could know the property of his neighbor
almost as well as his own property and it was not for his interest
to bear any burden which should properly fall upon another.
As a matter of fact taxes were seldom levied at so much
on the pound,[65] but a definite amount was ordered, to be apportioned
20among the rate payers. This law provides for assessors
only in case individuals neglect to rate themselves, and makes
no mention of collectors. The custom, however as has been said
was for the towns to appoint assessors whenever a tax was to be
levied and to entrust its collection to the constables or sergeants.
There were however many exceptions.
The central government was comparatively weak. Towns very often
paid no attention to the orders of the assembly and it became
necessary to resort to special means to assess and collect the
tax. Town machinery was overridden. The magistrates were
empowered to call town meetings to assess the rate[66] or the assembly
appointed a committee for the purpose. The general or
colony sergeant was required to collect the tax after the assessment
had been made.[67] The troubles in connection with the
collection of rates seem to have culminated in the spring of
1672, when what is known as the "sedition act" was passed.[68]
This act after reciting the dangers arising from the opposition
to the collection of rates provides that "if any person or persons
in any town or place within this jurisdiction, shall at
any time more especially in any town meeting or other publique
assembly of people, appear by word or act, in opposition to
such rates and impositions," made by the assembly or in opposition
to any act of the assembly, made in accordance with the
21charter, such person shall be "proceeded against as for high
contempt and sedition," and on conviction shall suffer at the
discretion of the justices, "corporall punishment by whipping,
not exceeding thirty stripes, or imprisonment in the House of
Correction, not exceeding twelve months; or else a fine or mulct,
not exceeding twenty pounds." This act was passed in April.
In the following month the annual election occurred. Not a
single deputy was reelected, and the same was true of the governor
and six assistants.[69] Political revolution was never more
complete. The new assembly repealed every act of its predecessor.
So strong was the reaction that in the following November
a limitation was placed upon the assembly's power of
taxation, by the provision "that noe tax nor rate from henceforth
shall be made, layd or levied on the inhabitants of this
Collony without the consent of the Deputys present pertaining
to the whole Collony, as there must be a major part of the Assistants
(by the Charter), nor any way bringe the Collony in
debt by any meanes." The assembly does not seem to have recovered
its former powers until 1679.[70]
With the establishment of the Andros government the assembly
disappeared. The right of taxation throughout his
whole jurisdiction belonged to Andros and his council; for local
purposes it seems to have been delegated to a court of nine
22justices which succeeded to the powers of both the Assembly and
the Court of Trials.[71] So much an examination of legislative
enactments shows us. We are fortunately enabled to fill out
the picture to some extent from other sources. In Jan. 1678-9
the freemen of Providence took action in regard to their quota
of the colony tax assessed in the preceding October. A committee
of four was chosen "to draw aside a Little space of time,
to consider togather of the suitablist prices, Which is meet to
be sett on (ya Esteemed) Rateable Estate of ye Inhabitants of
this Towne, x x x for to be a helpe & preparation to ye Lieviers."
The rates of valuation agreed upon were as follows:
"Meaddow Land: One acar Improved, to be Vallued at
04-00-00
planting Land: One Acar Improved to be Vallued at
03-00-00
Vakant Land; & unimproved: £ Acar to be Vallued at
00-03-00
An ox
04-00-00
4 or five yeare old steers
03-10-00
Cowes & three yeare old Cattle, To be Vallued at
03-00-00
two yeare old Cattle, To be Vallued at
01-15-00
Yearleings-Cattle--Each of whom--To be at
01-00-00
23three yeares old Horses, & horse kind--To be Vallued at
02-00-00
two yeare old horse, & horse kinde To be Vallued at
01-10-00
hoggs, or swine, Each of them above a yeare old
00-15-00
sheepe--above a yeare old--To be Vallued at
00-04-00"
"Ye Rate-makers" however "are not soe strictly tyed x x to ye
Instructions of ye above sayd Committee, but yt they have a
Libberty to Vary therefrom, as in theire discrescesion shall
seeme meet Unto them, x x x they having the sayd Instructions
as a Line for some guide of theire Judgement therein." Five men
were then chosen to assess the rate.[72] At the meeting of
the following March, it is ordered that notices be set up in
public places stating that the rate is to be levied and requiring
all inhabitants within fourteen days to bring in to the
rate makers an account of "The quantity of their Land & Meadows
Layd out to them, Improved & unimproved, As alsoe what Cattle
of any Sort they have, otherwise none can justly be offended,
if ye Raters only use what information they can get." When the
rate makers have made up their lists of what each man is to pay
they are to post them in public places and each tax payer is then
to bring to the treasurer, at his dwelling, the sum for which he is
24rated. The assessors completed their lists in July. The town
clerk was ordered to prepare a copy of the list and deliver it
to the town constables who should collect the rate. If any
refused to pay application was to be made to a Justice of the
Peace who should grant a warrant of distraint against the property
of the defective person.
Among the manuscripts in the Rhode Island Historical
Societies Cabinet in Providence are preserved several hundred
of the lists of rateable estates returned to the assessors by
individuals during the period of which we are now treating.
The following is "The Account of ye Rateable Estate of
Jon. Whipple of providence:
First Sixe Cowes, and one heifer; not 3 yeares old.
Secondly 2 Oxen
3dly 3 Steeres of 3 yeares old
4ly one heifer; 2 yeares old
5ly 3 of one yeares old, one a steere; ye 2 heifers
6ly 3 horses
7ly one mare and colt, beside 3 more if not stolen or alive or made bobtailes
8ly one house lott within Fence
9ly 2 shaires in ye Great meadown where I mowe 4 lods of hay
2510ly 4 Swine
11ly one yeare old horse colts"
John Whipple seems to have been blessed with more than
the average amount of wealth in personal estate, but this list
as do all the others clearly shows the character of the property
which existed at the time.[73] But little if any property
was owned beyond the limits of the town. Everything was tangible
and could be concealed neither from the neighbors nor the
assessors. It was not difficult to fix on a standard of valuation
which should apply uniformly and fairly to all property
owners. The method of taxation adopted was clearly the most
suitable, indeed the only one suitable at all, for a community of
farmers, where land was abundant, and where trade had not developed
but each family produced for its own consumption.
Taxation 1689-1710.
With the restoration of the government in 1690, after
the fall of Andros, Rhode Island enters upon a new period of
her history, a period marked within by a stronger central authority
and a more settled and orderly government.[74]
In 1695, the governor was granted a salary of
26£10 a year, the deputy governor £6 and the assistants £4 each.
All these officers had previously been exempted from taxation.[75]
Without the period was one of successive wars against the
French and Spaniards, wars which required the support of a paid
soldiery and, for a colony situated as was Rhode Island with
her great extend of sea coast, the maintenance of strong defences
against hostile ships. The charter was also endangered by
the attacks of the Narragansett proprietors, and later of Bellemont
and Dudley, and this required considerable expenditures to
meet the expenses of the agent in England. The taxes and the
purposes for which they were levied during the remainder of the
period of which we are now treating can be seen in the following
table.
"for the support of their Majesties' interest against the French and Indian enemies."
wool, butter, Indian corn, rye and pork.
July 1695
2d. in the pound.
Same as last.
27Oct. 1695
1d. in the pound.
Agent, and, if surplus, to pay the colony's debts.
May 1696 July 1696
2d. in the pound.
Aug. 1698
£800
"pay the Colony's debts, and putting monies in bank, for sending an agent for England."
Oct. 1699
£600
"for sending agent for England"
March 1700/1
£400 "current money of this Colony"
"for paying the Collony's debts and defraying of the publick Charge."
March 1701/2
£200 "in money"
"for the use and benefit" of the colony according to the direction of the governor and council.
28May 1702
£300 "in money or good pay equivalent."
Same as last.
Money, indian corn, oats, barley, rye.
Feb. 1702/3
£500
£200 for fort £150 for jail £150 for debts
money, indian corn, barley, wheat, rye, oats, wool.
Jan. 1703/4
£500
"for the support of the government."
"money or pay equivalent, according to the Collony's acts heretofore made."
May 1704
£700 in "money or pay equivalent."
money, wool, Indian corn, barley, oats, rice, wheat.
Feb. 1704/5
£500 in "current money of New England in pay in like species as the last £700 rate."
"for defraying the Collony's debts."
See "Amount."
June 1705
£500, same as last
Same as last
Same as last.
Aug. 1705
£1000, same as last
£300 for agent; remainder not specified.
Same as last.
29May 1706
£700
£400 for fort £100 for magazine, £200 for debts.
Same as last.
July 1706
£300
Same as last.
Feb. 1706/7
£500
£400 for the expenses of a cruise, £100 for debts.
May 1707
£1500
Feb. 1707/8
£500
Aug. 1708
£800 "in money, or specie answerable at the usual rates."
£100 for colony house, £100 for agent, remainder for debts and general expenses.
Indian corn, barley, rye, oats, wool, wheat.
March 1708/9
£500 Same as last.
Same as last.
May 1709
£1000, same as last.
Same as last.
Aug. 1709
£1000
for debts.
30Feb. 1709/10
£1200
same as last.
There were two wars against the French during this
period; "King William's War" from 1689-1697, and "Queen Anne's
War" from 1702-1713. In the first Rhode Island took little
part. She sent no men to aid the other colonies but confined
herself to strengthening her own defences and repelling the
French privateers which occasionally appeared in her waters,
particularly off Block Island. The same is true of the early
years of the Second War, although in this case the danger was
greater and really considerable amounts were expended in putting
the colony in a condition of defence, especially in strengthening
and supplying the fort at Newport. A regular garrison
was maintained at Block Island. The colony took part in the
expedition against Port Royal in 1707, and in 1709 sent to Boston
and maintained for five months two hundred men to assist in
the proposed expedition against Canada which did not take place.
The useless expenditure necessitated by this failure fell heavily
on the colony and when, in the following year, one hundred
and fifty-five men were sent to take part in the expedition
against Port Royal bills of credit were issued to meet the expense.
31During the earlier years expenses did not increase much
and seem to have been principally for the completion of the
colony house, begun under Andros, and for the expedition to repel
the French from Block Island.[77] Beginning with 1695 there is a
change. The payment of public officers becomes a considerable
charge. The expenses of the Agent increase. Then comes the
war expenditure, at first the maintenance of the fort and the
Block Island garrison and then the expeditions against Canada.[78]
The receipts are now almost entirely from taxes, other
sources having become comparatively insignificant with the increasing
revenue. The burden of taxation showed a constant
tendency to increase. The average annual tax from July 1695
to February 1709-10 was about £1000, from August 1698 to the
same date over £1200, from January 1703-4 nearly £1900, from May
1706 £2300, from February 1707-8 £2500, and during the last
year £3700 was raised. A census of the colony in December
1708 showed a total population of 7181 of whom 482 were servants,
black and white.[79] This would show a great increase in
the per capita taxation over the earlier period. During the
last year the per capita rate was over half a pound. The taxes
collected during this single year amounted to as much or
more than all the taxes collected during the first forty years
of the colonial government. There is no doubt that the burden
32was a heavy one and, following the example of others, the colony
sought relief in issues of paper money. With the adoption
of this new source of revenue colonial taxation practically
ceased and was revived only under the pressure of another and
greater war thirty-five years later.
The law and administration.
With higher taxes the necessity of a system of taxation
just and at the same time capable of strict enforcement, was
more strongly felt. We consequently find from the very beginning
of the period a great increase of legislation on the subject,
so that by January 1703-4 there was placed on the statute
book a body of law which contains the substance of our law today,
and to which little was added, until, within recent years,
the rapidly growing complexity of our industrial life has necessitated[80]
more careful and detailed enactments.
In the case of the very first tax after the Restoration
Warwick complained of overrating, and the Assembly finding "that
the manner of rating of towns by guess is no suitable nor certain
rule, but may prove very prejudicial; x x determine that
for the future, all rates that shall be made in the Collony,
shall be made according to so much on the pound as the estates
of persons are valued at."[81]
33The three succeeding taxes were, in accordance with the
resolution of 1690, percentage taxes and in connection with
them we find much interesting legislation. A committee appointed
in 1695 to draw up a plan of assessment reported as follows,
"We therefore propose this way be for the rateing all lands and
meadows and merchants, tradesmen and housings in this Collony;
that every town shall yearly choose two or three able and honest
men, to take the view of each of their inhabitants of their
lands and meadows; and so to judge of the yearly profit at
their wisdom and discretion; and so also of merchants and tradesmen;
and to make this part of the rate according to the yearly
profit; or as they, when they shall have had a more narrow inspection
into the lands and meadows, shall see cause to set by
the acre." The report was ordered to stand as an act by the
assembly.[82] Persons who did not bring in an account of their
estate were to be rated at the discretion of the assessors.
In this assessment according to profit, particularly of tradesmen
and merchants, we clearly see the influence of the commerce
of the colony, which was just at this time beginning to develop.[83]
Here too we see the first idea of assessors annually elected.[84]
The penny in the pound rate of this year was levied in accordance
with the same act, as was also the two pence rate of 1696.
In 1698 percentage taxation was abandoned, not to be again revived,
34and a return was made to the former custom of assessing
a specified sum and apportioning it among the towns. An attempt
however was made in the adoption of the most detailed law
with which we have yet met, to avoid injustice in the assessment.
In each town the assistants or two justices were to appoint
two men to take account of rateable estate and of males
between sixteen and sixty years of age, a return to be made to
the assistants or justices, who were to call a town meeting to
choose "three well qualified men" to assess each person's estate,
in accordance with the account returned and the act of
1695, so as to raise the required sum. All male persons between
sixteen and sixty years of age were required to pay a
poll tax of one shilling,[85] Indians, negroes and impotent persons
excepted, unless they were freemen or had set up a trade or
calling in the colony.[86] Any person who should conceal any part
of his estate from those appointed to take account was to forfeit
one fourth of the amount concealed. Finally an account
of the rateable estates was to be brought into the assembly, in
order that if any town had been overproportioned the error might
be rectified.[87] Though this act was not a general law it seems
in its administrative features at least with some slight modifications[88]
to have been the basis of the tax system until January
1703-4 when was passed the act which as we have said, is
35the foundation of the present law, so far as its administrative
features are concerned. Its provisions were as follows:
Each town on its annual election day was to make choice of
"three able, knowing men x x x for Assessors, or Rate-makers, to
stand for the year ensuing, who shall be engaged as all other
town officers; they, or the major part of them, in each town so
chosen, to make and proportion all town rates, and likewise
each town's part of all Collony rates". Collection was to be
made by the town constables who in case of neglect were to be
responsible for the sums entrusted to them for collection.[89]
The act was amended from time to time as occasion required.
In May 1704 the provision was introduced requiring the rate
makers before assessing a tax to give ten days notice to each
person to bring in an account of his rateable estate, anyone
failing to do so to have no redress for overrating.
The rate makers were also empowered to administer an
oath to all offering an account of their estates.[90]
The system of percentage taxation having been abandoned
by the assembly that body endeavored to obtain a satisfactory
basis for the apportionment of taxes among the towns by ordering
from time to time that each town should send into the assembly
an exact estimate of its rateable estate. I have been
able to find no trace of these early valuations.[91]
36Looking at the period after 1695, there is a plainly
marked progress both in legislation and administration. Before
1695, no well defined system of taxation had been established
by general law, but it was customary for each act assessing a
tax, or the amendments to it, to contain the rules for assessment
and collection. A practically uniform system doubtless
prevailed by custom, but it was not embodied in the law. After
1695, we meet with general laws upon the subject of taxation
which gradually result in a recognized legal system. When a
tax is ordered reference for the method of assessment and collection
is generally made either to some former tax or to a general
law, the latter being always the case after 1703-4.
The same progress is evident in the administration of
the law. During the first few years great difficulties were
often experienced, as in the earlier period, and it was frequently
found necessary to override town machinery and place
the appointment of the assessors and collectors of the tax in
the hands of the officers of the central government.[92] As
that government became more firmly established, however, the towns
yielded more willing obedience and during the later years of
which we are speaking the heavy taxes were collected with great
promptness by means of the ordinary administrative machinery.
The cost of assessment and collection at the time was great
37amounting to seven or eight per cent. of the tax collected.
In addition to this there was frequently a loss resulting from
the payment of taxes in kind, either because the articles had
to be disposed of at price lower than that at which they had been
received or because of injury suffered while in the treasury.[93]
Miscellaneous Revenues.
There still remain to be noticed one or two matters
which have not fallen within the foregoing survey.
The first has to do with legislation in regard to traders
who cane into Rhode Island from other colonies, sold their
goods and then returned remaining often but a short time. It
was claimed that these traders carried off much ready money and
produce to the detriment of the colony, at the same time escaping
the burdens which fell upon the home trader. A law of
1698 levied a tax of five shillings on every ten pounds value
of goods sold at retail by any trader who was not admitted an
inhabitant of the colony. The tax on goods at wholesale was
twenty shillings on one hundred pounds. This provision seems
to have been aimed at foreign goods, as grain, provisions, and
the produce of neighboring plantations were excepted from its
operation.[94] In 1700 the tax on retailers was raised to five
per cent.[95] and in the following year all merchants remaining in
38the colony for a month were made liable to all rates and duties
levied upon inhabitants.[96]
The second has to do with other sources of revenue, in
addition to those already mentioned, enjoyed by the colony,
more important for the principle which they exemplify than for
the revenue which they yielded. In 1707 an act was passed
provided for the survey of vacant lands in the Narragansett
country. These lands were sold to settlers and the proceeds
devoted to the Canada expedition.[97]
From the nature of the colony ferries had always been a
matter of great importance. The assembly had occasionally interfered
to regulate their management in the interest of the public,
and in 1699 adopted the policy of leasing the ferries for a
term of years on condition of an annual payment to be made into
the general treasury. The receipts were small but the principle
involved was an important one.[98]
Period of Paper Money, 1710-1751.
The history of paper money in Rhode Island has already
been treated with considerable fullness.[99] It does not strictly
fall within the scope of this monograph and will be treated
only so far as to give a clear idea of the financial policy of
the colony, an idea necessary to an understanding of the part
39played by taxation.
According to the report on the state of the treasury in
1709; the year of the attempted expedition against Canada, notwithstanding
the heavy taxation, the colony found itself in
debt to the amount of £3830-15s.-4d. To cover this deficit
and meet the expenses of succeeding expeditions £13000 in
bills of credit were issued during the years 1710 and 1711.
These bills passed equal to silver at eight shillings per
ounce.[100] By this means the colony succeeded in transferring the
balance to the right side of the account.
During the years of peace which followed the peace of
Utrecht annual expenses greatly diminished. Ordinary expenditure
was considerably under one thousand pounds, extraordinary
expenditure sometimes added as much again or even more to the
account.[101] With the growth of population, political and economic
development,[102] and the depreciation of the currency, these sums
gradually increased so that in 1731 a report made to the Board
of Trade estimates the ordinary expenditure at two thousand
pounds and the extraordinary at two thousand five hundred
pounds. By 1739, when the Spanish war began the total of
these two sums had increased to about six thousand pounds.
Notwithstanding the diminution of expenditure the colonists
at the close of the war in 1713 were loth to take up
40again the burden or taxation and for the next forty years the
government supported itself almost entirely by means of bills
of credit. The usual method of procedure was this. Bills of
credit were issued and loaned at interest, for a term of years,
to landholders on mortgage security to double the amount of
the bills. These loans were termed "Banks." The following
table shows the Banks issued before the Revolution, the number
of years for which they were loaned, the rate of interest
received and the value of the bills at the time of issue.
41At the expiration of the loans interest ceased and repayment
was made in ten equal annual instalments.[105] The amount
legally outstanding in January 1740-1 was £340,000, (sterling
value £88074-16s. 10-3/4d.)[106] the actual amount was doubtless
greater, as we know that repayment was not always promptly made.[107]
In addition to the Banks the General Assembly had from time to
time made direct issues of bills of credit. Before 1739, however,
these issues were principally to replace worn and torn
bills and did not increase materially the circulation. According
to a report made in October 1739 the amount issued up to
that time (including everything but the banks) was £117,001-15s.
This sum had been offset by bills burnt to the amount
of £105,704-15s. 3d., leaving an increase of circulation due
to these issues of £11296-19s. 9d. Under the stress of war
which now began and continued for several years these issues
were largely increased. According to a report prepared in
February 1749/50, for transmission to the English government,
there was issued from September 1740 to February 1747 £206,000.
The committee sums up its report in regard to these bills as
follows: "At divers times, from the year 1710, to the year
1747, the colony has emitted bills of credit to the amount of
£312300, old tenor; and there hath been called in and burnt at
several times from the year 1728 to 1748, £176,964, 6s. 10d.;
42and by the last settlement of the general treasurer's account,
it appears that there was then in the public treasury, £24,891
10s. 10d. from all which it appears that there is now outstanding
of the bills issued to supply the treasury, £110,444
2s. 3d.; the whole of which outstanding sum was issued in the
years 1746 and 1747,and is equal to £10,040 7s. 5d. sterling."[108].
The amount legally outstanding in bank money was £390,000
old tenor (£210,000 nominal) sterling value £35,444, 9s. 2d.
The increased issues had depreciated the paper money so rapidly
that its relation to sterling was now as 11 to 1. As in 1739,
the actual amount outstanding the legal amount. By the aid of
remittances from England for the reimbursement of war expenditures
Massachusetts succeeding in sinking her paper bills.
Rhode Island with much larger proportional issues failed to follow
the same course.
Douglas in 1748 estimated the total amount of bills of
all kinds outstanding at £550,000 old tenor and even this seems
to have been an under rather than over estimate.
In 1751 came the ninth and last bank, of a nominal value
of £25,000 equal to £237000 old tenor. The issue of this
bank was the last victory of the paper money party. For many
years a strong opposition had been developing. As early as
1731 a protest against the issue of the fourth bank, signed by
43prominent citizens, had been sent to the king. Protests were
also entered against the seventh and eighth banks, and in 1750
another petition against paper money issues signed by seventy
two persons, representing the merchants of Newport, the commercial
centre of the colony, was presented to the king. In 1751
parliament passed an act which, supported by the growing sentiment
in favor of better financial methods, may be said to mark
the downfall of the paper money policy. The principle provisions
of the act were that, after September 29, 1751, bills of
credit could be issued only with the consent of the home-government,
and that provision must be made for calling them in
within two years in the case of issues to meet current expenses,
and in five years in the case of emergencies such as war.
The time of the bills already out was not to be extended, and
no bills issued or to be issued were to be made a legal tender.
It seems best to anticipate for a moment and trace to its end
the history of the issues already made. First, as to the
bills issued to supply the treasury. Of those which had been
called in and burnt previous to 1749, £88725 had been sunk by
means of grants made by parliament to reimburse the colonies
for the expenses incurred in King George's War. In 1751
£24280 more wore sunk in like manner. Between this date and
1785 £17368 were sunk from the proceeds of taxes leaving outstanding
44£93688. This sum was called in by a tax for the exact
amount levied in 1769.
Provision for calling in the bank money by repayment
of the loans had been made as we have seen in the acts of issue.
The whole amount should have been repaid by 1767, but instead of
this a report made to the general assembly in May 1770 shows
that there was still outstanding £92615 old tenor value.
The bills continued to depreciate rapidly. In 1763
the following table was adopted as a standard for the determination
of old tenor debts.
£.
s.
d.
In the year 1751 a Spanish milled dollar was worth
2
16
0
In the year 1752 a Spanish milled dollar was worth
3
00
0
In the year 1753 a Spanish milled dollar was worth
3
10
0
In the year 1754 a Spanish milled dollar was worth
3
15
0
In the year 1755 a Spanish milled dollar was worth
4
05
0
In the year 1756 a Spanish milled dollar was worth
5
05
0
In the year 1757 a Spanish milled dollar was worth
5
15
0
In the year 1758 a Spanish milled dollar was worth
6
00
0
In the year 1759 a Spanish milled dollar was worth
6
00
0
In the year 1760 a Spanish milled dollar was worth
6
00
0
In the year 1761 a Spanish milled dollar was worth
6
10
0
In the year 1762 a Spanish milled dollar was worth
7
00
0
45In the year 1763 a Spanish milled dollar was worth
7
00
0
At the same time it was "enacted and declared, that
lawful money of this colony is, and shall hereafter be silver
and gold coin; and that nothing else shall be taken and understood
to be lawful money of this Colony." Old tenor suffered
a still further depreciation, until in the tax act of February
1769 it was ordered that it be received at the rate of $1 for
£8. By act of September 1770, its circulation was forbidden after
January 1, 1771. The rapid depreciation since the issues
at the time of King George's War together with the return of
Massachusetts to a specie currency at the end of the war seems
to have been disastrous for Rhode Island commerce which was
mostly with the West Indies. The disturbance was aggravated by
the approaching war, and so numerous did mercantile failures become
that a general insolvency act was passed in 1756.
Financial History 1751-1790. — Financial History 1751-1775. — Loans. — Bills of Credit. — Treasury Notes. — Receipts from England. — Taxes. — Financial History of the Revolution.
46
During the French and Indian war paper money was issued
in large quantities but provision was made for its redemption
in accordance with the Act of Parliament in 1751, and an earnest
attempt was made to meet the obligations thus incurred.
The period from 1751 to 1775 was really a period of
war financiering, for the debt incurred for war purpose was not
extinguished until the beginning of the Revolution, and we shall
treat it as a whole.
The sources of revenue were loans, bills of credit,
treasury notes, grants made by the English government, and taxes.
These were usually advanced by private individuals.
Unfortunately the accounts entered in the colony book by the
auditing committees were not kept in such a manner as to enable
us to determine with satisfactory certainty either the amounts
borrowed or the times of repayment. The difficulty is the
greater with regard to the latter point. So far as the books
show the sums borrowed between 1751 and 1775, reduced to sterling,
amounted to about £28,441, of which all but about £4,000
was borrowed during the six years 1755-1761.
47
The history of the bills issued up to the year 1751 we
have already considered. It remains to describe the issues of
the present war.
The first of these issues was in 1755 to meet the expenses
of the Crown Point expedition. The bills were of the
old tenor denomination, amounting to £240,000 equal to £13,500
sterling. They were to circulate two years without interest
and then be called in and sunk. The subsequent issues were all
in what were known as lawful money bills. They were issued at
various times from 1756 to 1767, the total amount being £97,569
equal to £73,360 sterling. All but £6660 were issued on or before
August 1762, £14,000 issued in 1756 were to run for two
years and without interest. The other emissions were for five
years with interest at 5%. The bills were declared equal to
silver at 6s. 9d. per ounce.
These were interest bearing notes issued to meet the
bills of credit, bonds given for money borrowed or other treasury
notes as they fell due, when receipts from other sources did
not suffice for redemption. The practical effect was to work
an extension of the debt. As shown by the treasury reports
48these notes seem to have been issued for the most part between
the years 1765 and 1775 and amounted to £46,549 lawful money
equal £34,999 sterling. The greater part seem to have been
redeemed at the outbreak of the Revolution.
These were grants made by the English government to reimburse
the colony for expenses incurred in the war. These
grants made throughout the course of the war amounted to about
£50,000 sterling and there was received from the English commanders
in this country about £4000 or £5000 more, making in
round numbers £55,000.
We now come to the source of revenue which concerns us
most nearly. A slight attempt to resume taxation had been
made at the time of King George's war. A tax of £10,000 old
tenor (£1677 sterling) had been ordered in 1744 and another of
£5,000 new tenor (£2000 sterling) in 1747/8, but the paper money
party was still in the ascendant and it was not until after the
overthrow of that party that the policy of taxation was seriously
resumed in 1754.
The following table will show the taxes levied from that
date to the beginning of the Revolution, together with their
49sterling values at the time the tax was ordered.
(o. t. = old tenor. l. m. = lawful money. The second column contains the sterling values.)
1754
£35,000. (o. t.)
£2102
1755
70,000. (o. t.)
3710
1756
53,000. (o. t.)
2274
4,000. (l. m.)
3008
1757
100,000. (o. t.)
3917
150,000. (o. t.)
5875
4,000. (l. m.)
3008
1758
6,000. (l. m.)
4512
110,000. (o. t.)
4129
1759
11,000. (l. m.)
8271
1760
15,547. (l. m.)
11689
1761
16,000. (l. m.)
12030
1762
8,000. (l. m.)
6015
1763
12,000. (l. m.)
9023
1764
12,000. (l. m.)
9023
1765
12,469. (l. m.)
9375
1766
6,000. (l. m.)
4511
75,000. (o. t.)
2252
1769
6,000. (l. m.)
4511
93,688. (o. t.)
2638
1770
12,000. (l. m.)
9023
501771
£12,000. (l. m.)
£9023
1772
12,000. (l. m.)
9023
1773
4,000. (l. m.)
3008
1774
4,000. (l. m.)
3008
This would give an average annual taxation for the twenty-one
years of £6,950 sterling or $33,777. in our money, equal
to about 70 cents per capita.
Taxation, however, varied greatly at different periods.
For the eleven years 1756-1766 the average annual tax was
$43,707., about $1.00 per capita; for the five years 1757-1761
it was $51,935., equal to $1.18 per capita. Taxation reached
its height in 1760 and 1761 amounting to $57,637. a year and
$1.28 per capita. By 1773 it had fallen off to $14,619. a
year, or a trifle less than 25 cents per capita. An estimate
of the rateable property in 1762 gave a valuation of £26,105,423
old tenor, equal to about $4,224,178. Using this as a basis
the rate of taxation in 1760 and 1761 would have been about
1.36 per cent. on the value of rateable property. An estimate
of 1769 gave a property valuation of $7,706,449. (£2111356 lawful
money). The rate of taxation in 1773 and 1774 was only
.19 per cent. on this valuation. The average rate for the whole
51period seems to have been about one half of one per cent. By
far the greater part of this taxation was for war purposes.
The regular expenses of colonial government do not seem to have
exceeded $7300. (£2000 lawful money) per annum, which towards
the end of the period would amount to not more than 12 cents
per capita, or one tenth of one per cent on valuation.
The above is a general outline of the financial operations
of the period. The indebtedness of the colony at any
particular date is difficult to determine. A committee in
1762 estimated that there were outstanding bills to the amount
of about £53231 sterling. According to a report of a like
committee in 1762 the amount was about £43000. In addition,
however, the colony was considerably in debt for money hired.
Whatever debt there was, however, seems to have been, for the
most part, extinguished in the early years of the Revolution.
With the opening of the Revolution a new debt began to
roll up. £60,000 in bills of credit (lawful money) were emitted
in 1775 and £80,000 in the following year. A meeting of
commissioners from the New England states, in Providence, December
1776, recommended that Rhode Island issue no more bills of
credit, except of fractional denominations, but depend upon
52loans and taxes. The State complied with the suggestion and
the only other issue of bills, before 1780, was in May 1777,
when £4,500 in fractional currency was emitted. These bills of
credit, as well as the continental bills, were declared a legal
tender. They seem to have kept their value fairly well until
the beginning of the year 1777, when a rapid depreciation set
in. In accordance with the recommendation of Congress they were
called in by Act of May 1778, and their circulation forbidden
after July first of that year. After this date continental money,
probably, formed the main circulating medium, until depreciation
had gone so far that in 1780 the tender laws were repealed
and a return made to a gold and silver basis. Up to
June, 1779, the colony seems to have borrowed £162,756. In addition
there were, all through the war, issues of certificates in
payment of various obligations. It is impossible even to approximate
to their amount. They were in many cases made receivable
for taxes and were redeemed in this way. Taxation was
resumed in March 1777, and vigorously applied, but so heavy
were the burdens which fell upon the State in its weakened condition
that in the summer of 1780 the treasury was empty.
This led to the issue of £20,000 more in bills of credit.
This was the last issue of paper money by the State during
the War. A considerable portion of the debt had been redeemed
53by taxation. That part of the debt incurred during the
paper money period, which still remained outstanding, was called
in by several Acts of 1782 and scaled down to the basis of the
special value at the time the obligation was incurred, for which
amount the treasurer issued his notes, payable in lawful money
(silver), in from three to six years, bearing interest at six
per cent. The want of accurate accounts leaves us in doubt
as to just what was the effect of this consolidation and reduction.
A committee reporting in October 1783 places the state
debt at £123,892-15-11, in addition to £19,922-2-0 of the
state's proportion of the new continental emission (March 1780)
outstanding.
The greater part of this latter sum, however, had never
left the treasury. A report of a committee in March 1787 placed
the debt at £153,047-15-7. In the mean time steps had already
been taken for its extinguishment.
In the years succeeding the war the colony was in a
wretched economic condition. It was exhausted by the heavy
financial and other burdens, the disturbance to industry, and
the loss that had resulted from a long continued and destructive
occupation of the commercial centres or the state by the
British, as well as by the presence of the American army which
had to be clothed and fed. Trade was interrupted, a large portion
54of the able bodied men had entered the army, and even those
who remained at home were liable to be called upon at any moment
for temporary service, or to have their property taken at
an appraised valuation. Services rendered to the state were
paid for only by promises of constantly decreasing value. As
a result of all these causes economic society was disorganized.
In the midst of such conditions the state was called upon to
face a heavy debt. The treasury was completely exhausted and
the people seemed unwilling to submit to further taxation.
The legislature again turned to paper money for relief, and in
May 1786 ordered the issue of the tenth bank. The amount was
£100,000 and it was to be loaned, as were the others, on double
mortgage security. The rate of interest was four per cent.,
and repayment to be completed within fourteen years. Depreciation
was immediate and rapid, but the paper money party was
firmly seated in power and the legislature passed acts of the
most extreme character to enforce the circulation of the bills.
The ordinary legal procedure, including trial by jury, was suspended
in the case of offenders against the paper money laws.
These "forcing acts", as they were called, came to naught, however,
as the supreme court refused to exercise jurisdiction. Balked
in their effort to force the circulation of the bills, the
legislature turned to the easier task of paying off the state
55debt in the depreciated currency. By a series of acts, ranging
from December 1786 to March 1789, the holders of the state debt
were ordered to bring in their claims and receive payment in
the paper bills, under penalty of forfeiture of the whole amount.
As a result of this threat about one half of the debt seems to
have been presented and paid, the smaller holders as a rule
yielding to necessity, the larger holders standing out in the
hope of a more profitable adjustment. The paper money party
was now nearing the end of its power. An act of October 1789
made the bills of 1786 receivable at fifteen to one for coin,
and authorized those to whom the money had been loaned by the
state to make repayment upon the same basis.
In May 1790 the state entered the Union, and the possibility
of such schemes in the future ceased. Those who had
been able to resist the attempt of the state to pay their claims
in a depreciated currency now reaped the benefit of their foresight.
By act of August 4, 1790 Congress provided for the
assumption of $21,500,000. of state debts, of which $200,000. was
allowed to Rhode Island. Seeing the injustice which would accrue
to those who had been compelled to accept their payment in
paper money, the assembly in June 1791 passed an act repealing
the various acts which had declared null and void the securities
which had not been brought in in accordance with the acts
56of 1786-1789. Where payments had been made on securities in
paper money the treasurer was authorized to reduce the amount
so paid to specie value and deduct it from the face value of
the security, the remainder to be presented with other securities
for subscription to the United States loan. The United States
commissioner, however, refused to receive these certificates, as
the law under which the assumption took place provided that only
those notes and certificates which had been issued prior to
January 1, 1790 would be received. Thus the whole of this
assumption enured to the benefit of those who had not brought
in their securities for payment, as ordered by the state. On
the day following the assumption of the state debts, just referred
to, Congress provided for a settlement of accounts between
the United States and the individual states. The latter were
to be debited with all advances made by the general government
and credited with all disbursements made for "the general or
particular defence during the war, and on the evidence thereof
according to the principles of general equity (although such
claims may not be sanctioned by the resolves of Congress, or
supported by regular vouchers)." The settlement of these accounts
showed Rhode Island to be a creditor of the United States
to the amount of $299,611. The final settlement between the
state and its creditors is shown in the report of the general
57treasurer in Feb. 1797. The whole amount of the debt recognized
by the state was $503,594.76. $419,662.30 of this was
paid by the transfer of United States stock in the possession
of the state and $83,932.46 by the issue of 4% state certificates.
This last formed what was known as the registered state
debt. It was added to, from time to time, by the recognition
of new claims for Revolutionary service and was diminished by
occasional purchases by the state at a rate below the par
value, but the state was always loth to recognize its full responsibility
for the debt and ended by practical repudiation.
The above is an outline of the financial history of
the state during the Revolution. We now turn back for a moment
to obtain a more detailed idea of taxation. Perhaps this
can best be done, as in the case of the French and Indian war,
by means of a table. (The date given is that of the passage
of the act assessing the tax. The first column contains the
nominal amount of the tax as stated in said act. The second
column contains the nominal amount of the tax actually assessed,
certain deductions being necessary on account of the occupation
of portions of the state by the enemy and for other
reasons. The third column contains the same reduced to specie
value, and the fourth column contains the same expressed in
our present dollars. The taxes marked with a star are for continental
58purposes)[109].
Date.
Nominal value in pounds.
Nominal value assessed.
Specie value assessed.
Value in dollars.
March, 1777.
16,000
12,658
11,613
42,387.
Aug. 1777.
32,000
25,316
16,877
61,601.
Dec. 1777.
48,000
37,115
11,973
43,701.
147,689.
Feb. 1778.
32,000
24,365
6,962
25,411.
June 1778.
32,000
24,289
6,072
22,163.
Oct. 1778.
32,000
After
6,000
21,900.
69,474.
Feb. 1779.
60,000
June,
6,912
25,229.
x Feb. 1779.
90,000
1778,
10,369
37,847.
June 1779.
60,000
the
4,471
16,319.
x June 1779.
225,000
first
16,766
61,196.
x Dec. 1779.
120,000
and
4,628
16,892
157,483.
x Feb. 1780.
180,000
second
5,418
19,776.
x May 1780.
180,000
columns
3,913
14,282
May 1780.
180,000
are the
3,913
14,282.
July 1780.
10,000
same.
10,000
36,500.
July 1780.
400,000
5,797
21,159
Nov. 1780.
1,000,000
13,514
49,326.
Nov. 1780.
16,000
16,000
58,400.
213,725.
59May, 1781.
20,000
20,000
73,000
May, 1781.
6,000
6,000
21,900
94,900
x Jan. 1782.
6,000
6,000
21,900
Jan. 1782.
12,000
12,000
43,800
x Feb. 1782.
6,000
6,000
21,900
x June 1782.
12,000
12,000
43,800
131,400.
June 1783.
20,000
20,000
73,000
73,000.
June 1784.
20,000
20,000
73,000
73,000
Aug. 1785.
20,000
20,000
73,000
73,000.
June 1786.
20,000
13,333
48,665.
48,665
March 1787.
20,000
3,534
12,899
Sept. 1787.
30,000
5,000
18,250.
31,149.
June 1788.
30,000
4,000
14,600
14,600
March 1789.
20,000
1,667
6,085
6,085.
In addition to these money taxes there were various
other burdens which took the form of more or less arbitrary
contributions. Enactments were early passed regulating the
prices of all articles, and, in case they could not be otherwise
60procured, authorizing their seizure at these stated prices
to meet various expenditures. It became customary, when troops
were to be raised, to require each town to raise a certain
number, often a cause of considerable expense, and, as the war
went on and paper money and loans failed as sources of state
revenue, it was common to hold each town responsible for a
certain quantity of clothing or provisions. Payment of some
kind was generally provided for, but, owing to the wretched
financial conditions of the time, these requirements must have
operated to a certain extent as a tax.
The long continued presence of the enemy necessitated
in addition to the maintenance of an army as large or larger
than the states proportion of the continental levies, an almost
constant militia service which, though nominally paid
for, must have been a severe burden and interfered seriously
with industry. Again, in any attempt to estimate the burden
of taxation during the Revolution, we must take into consideration
not only the impositions above mentioned, which partake
more or less of the character of taxation itself, but also
the general condition of the colony. The British held possession
of the island towns from December, 1776, to October, 1779.
These towns were in great part deserted by the sympathizers
61with the American cause, who, having lost almost all their
property, became a burden upon the rest of the state. All the
towns situated upon the sea coast or upon the shore of the bay
were subject to the incursions of the enemy and were kept in a
constant state of alarm, while on one occasion at least arrangements
were made for the evacuation of Providence. Commerce
was practically destroyed and economic life apparently
to a great extent disorganized, giving rise to wide spread suffering
from poverty.
If we assume the population of the taxable portion of
the state for the years 1777-8-9, to be 46,000, the per
capita rate of taxation for the period was about $2.71 per annum,
and the rate for the years 1780-1-2, on the basis of
the population in 1782, was $2.80. The highest rate during the
period was in 1780, when it reached $4.08. With the close of
the war taxation diminished. In 1783-4-5, it was about
$1.35 per capita, and after the issue of paper money in 1786,
it gradually sank until in 1789, it amounted to only about 9
cents.
Estimating the rateable property in this state, exclusive
of the towns in possession of the British, at
$10,165,048, the rate of taxation for the three years 1777-1779,
62would have been 1.22 per cent per annum.
On a ratable basis if $10,903,312, the rate in the
years 1780-82, was 1.34 per cent, the highest rate during
the period was 1.96 per cent in 1780. On the basis of the valuation
computed in 1783, the rate for the years 1783-1785,
was only .6 per cent and had fallen to .05 per cent in 1789.
When we remember that this taxation was for both state
and continental purposes, it does not seem excessive, judged
by the figures of today. Taking into consideration however the
general and special economic conditions of the period, it is
safe to say that it was a heavy burden.[110] Any comparison
with recent times must necessarily be unsatisfactory, for
finance was an art but little developed in the United States
one hundred years ago, and the burdens of the Revolution were
felt much more in the shape of a constantly depreciating currency,
forced seizures of property, service without recompense,
unpaid debts, and general economic disturbance, than in excessive
taxation.
The law of taxation since 1710.
63
The history of the law of taxation shows us no change
of principle but only a further development of detail where
experience had shown[111] existing provisions inadequate.
Additional measures against foreign traders were passed. In
1738 each town was directed to choose "three discreet and prudent
Persons" to assess such foreign traders according to
their trade. In case of non-payment the delinquent might be
distrained upon or in case there was not sufficient visible
property he might be committed to jail.[112]
Considerable progress was made in developing the law of
assessment. In 1744 when taxation was resumed, a law was
passed which declared in detail the various kinds of rateable
property and the values at which they were to be assessed. It
is of so much value, both as affording a comparison with the
like enactments of the earlier period and as giving an example
of the acts in accordance with which colony valuations were
taken, that it seems best to print it in full.[113]
"An Act ascertaining what Estate is Rateable, and for
proportioning the same in Value.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of this Colony,
64and by the Authority thereof, it is Enacted, That the following
Estates shall be deemed Rateable in all Publick Colony Rates
and Taxes, therein made and levied, and shall be included and
considered in the Proportioning the same, and that in the following
Manner, and according to the Specifick Value they are
hereafter fixed at, viz:
All Neat Cattle of Four Years old and upwards, shall be
valued at Ten Pounds per Head.
All Neat Cattle from Two Years old to Four Years old,
shall be valued at Five Pounds per Head; and Neat Cattle that
are under Two Years old, are not to be considered.
All Horse Kind to be rated in the like Manner, as to
their Age and Value.
All Sheep and Goats of One Year old and upwards, shall
be valued at Fifteen Shillings per Head; and if younger, not
to be valued.
All Swine of One Year old and upwards, shall be valued
at Thirty Shillings per Head; but not to be considered before.
All Slaves for Life, that are between Sixteen and Fifty
Years of Age, shall be set at the Price of Eighty Pounds; those
under Sixteen, or above Fifty, not to be rated.
All deck'd Vessels that are in Port, shall be set at
65Five Pounds per Ton; and those not deck'd, at Three Pounds per
Ton.
All Trading Stock shall be set at Half the real Value
thereof; to which is to be added, what Estate every Man hath,
either in Money, Bonds, or other Estate that lies concealed, to
be considered as other personal Estate, which the Rate makers
shall have Power to require, and take an Account of as visible
Estate.
All Lands, Houses, Mills, Wharffs and other real Estates,
shall be valued at the Rate of Ten Years, and so considered
in the Assessment.
All Males from Sixteen Years old and upwards, shall be
stated at One Shilling per Head, for every Thousand Pound Rate
assessed by the Colony; and in Proportion for a greater or
lesser Sum: In which Assessment upon Poles, shall be included
all Servants for Years, of the Age aforesaid.
And be it Enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That the
Assessors in all and every Rate, levied as aforesaid, shall
consider all Persons who make Profit by their Faculties, and
shall rate them accordingly."[114]
In 1747 the poll tax was reduced to nine pence per one
thousand pounds of tax levied. As a matter of fact the usual
66amount of the poll tax, as determined in the various acts ordering
the assessment of taxes, was six pence per one thousand
pounds.[115]
The digest of 1767,[116] defines somewhat more minutely
than before the procedure to be followed by assessors.
They were directed to make separate lists, first of the estates,
the valuations of which had been handed in by the owners, second
of the estates estimated by the assessors, and third of
the number of polls.
The amount to be raised on polls was then to be deducted
from the total tax and the remainder was to be apportioned
among the rateable estates. Even in the case of those who made
return of this property, the power of making the final estimate
remained with the assessors, subject to an appeal to the next
general sessions of the peace for the county. If it appeared
that a true list had been handed in the tax payer might recover
from the town treasury. The appeal was not to interfere with
the process of collection. By act of 1769 all lands or other
real estate granted or purchased for religious uses or for[117]
schools were exempted from taxation.
It would appear that in the case of leased estates taxes
had been assessed on the owner. This had rendered collection
67difficult, and in 1784 it was provided that in the future
the tax should be assessed on the occupant who was to be liable
in his real and personal property. If this was not sufficient
the real estate occupied was liable.
By the same act assessors were required to distinguish
between real and personal estate, and assign a separate column
to each in their rate lists.[118]
The law in regard to collection also underwent considerable
development. It was about the middle of the century
that collectors began to be regularly elected as town officers.[119]
A law of February 1755 provided that if a person
rated in one town removed to another town without paying his
rate, the collector of the town where he was rated might follow
him and collect the tax.[120] The difficulty of collecting
taxes on the lands of non-residents led to laws which provided
that the land itself might be sold for taxes.[121] The general
treasurer was first given the power to call special courts
for the prosecution of delinquent collectors,[122] and later
was authorized to bring actions directly against the town
treasurer[123], who in return might recover from delinquent
collectors and their bondsmen. In 1781 the real estate of
collectors and their sureties was declared liable for the satisfaction
68of all judgements secured against them.[124] Warrants
for collection were declared to be in force until the
tax was collected.[125]. Collectors were empowered to call
before them any one who they had reason to believe possessed
property of any person who had been rated, but who had left
the colony, and compel him to pay the tax of the absent person.
In case the person summoned failed to appear and make declaration,
he himself was liable to distraint for the amount of the
tax.[126] Personal property seized by distraint might be removed,
for sale, to any part of the colony.[127]
There were several other general laws of less importance[128]
and, besides these, there were certain provisions
which were re-enacted with each tax assessment. In this way
the towns were required to pay all charges and fees for collection.
Interest was charged against the towns in arrears. It
was generally provided also that the towns might appoint new
assessors for the assessment of each colonial tax, and, in some
cases at least, it was customary.
Colonial and State Valuations.
69
The law of taxation as it appears in general acts has
to do principally with questions of administration. What we
might call the principle of the tax system was not as a rule
embodied in the general law. It was the growth of custom and
its existence was assumed in legislative acts. That the state
might apportion the taxes among the towns with some degree of
justice, it was necessary, however, that it should obtain information
in regard to the value of the property existing within
its borders. Thus, from time to time, general estimates
were taken, and in the acts ordering these estimates we find
a more detailed statement of the methods and principles to be
followed, together with certain departures from the usual custom
which reflect the various phases of economic life in the
period to which they refer.
Just what was the basis of apportionment among the
towns when taxation was resumed in 1744, we do not know. By
act of June 1747 the assessors in each town were required to
take an exact account of the rateable estate of all inhabitants
on the basis of the act of 1744, and made returns to the next
session of the assembly, for use in the apportionment of taxes.
A similar valuation was ordered in 1754, and again in 1757.
70Return was generally made, but they showed only the total valuation
of each town as estimated by the assessors, and the
assembly made use of no means of verification or revision.
Protests against apportionment were frequent. In June 1761
another act was passed for marking a general valuation of the
colony. The assessors of each town with two other persons appointed
by the assembly did the work. Detailed rules were
laid down for their guidance. They were to take account of
all "Male Polls of Sixteen years old and upwards, distinguishing
such as are exempt from Rates, and of all Rateable Estates
lying within said Towns, by whom occupied, and what each Person's
Real Estate may rent for by the year, particularly mentioning
Land," and the various kinds of structures thereon.
The estimate was also to distinguish all negro, Indian, or mulatto
servants for life from fourteen to forty-five years of
age, the number of tons of vessels upwards of ten tons burthen,
each person's whole stock in trade including vessels under ten
tons, all goods, merchandize, and money owned by any person or
in his hands by "factorage," all wrought plate and money at
interest "which any person hath, more than he pays interest for,"
and all horses and other cattle. The committees were ordered
to distinguish the various "Improvements of Land", and to specify
71in their lists the number of acres of pasture, tillage,
orchards, salt marsh, and sedge, fresh meadows, and English
mowing land respectively, also the stock each pasture was ordinarily
capable of feeding, and what quantity of produce the
land yielded on the average. Persons handing in lists of their
estates might on oath declare the amount of debts which they
owed and deduct the same from their personal estates. The
person in possession of an estate was obliged to give an account
of the same, and when no one was in possession the committee
was to estimate.
The committees were empowered to administer oaths, and
if any inhabitant refused to hand in an account of his estate,
he was to be "doomed" by the committee and forfeit £30. A
committee was appointed to receive the reports of the various
town committees, to compare and revise them and thus make a
general estimate.
In February, 1762, this committee reported such an estimate.
It was adopted by the assembly and declared to be the
basis of future apportionments among the towns. The report
contained the following estimates: acres of woodland 247,685;
value of woodland £4,613,778; amount of live stock £2,835,007;
money and trading stock £8,455,428; rents £1,458,748; polls
728,285. On the basis of these estimates the committee reported
the following standard for apportionment:
A protest on the part of the country towns signed by
twenty members was immediately presented. The grounds of complaint
were that the committee had reduced trading stock one
half when the act for taking the estimate had already "provided
for large deductions," and secondly that twelve years
purchase was too high an estimate for land values. Although
the estimate of 1762 had been accepted as the legal basis of
apportionment, departures were made from it which gave use to
more or less weighty protests. In the case of the tax assessed
in October, 1765, there was a protest signed by fifteen members
which declared the estimate of 1762 to be the only legal
rule of apportionment, and that the present departure from it
was "altogether arbitrary, unequal and oppressive to particular
towns, nor founded on any real knowledge of the circumstances
of the people taxes." Providence, Scituate and Cumberland refused
73to pay the tax. Another protest by the representatives
of the same towns was made against the apportionment of the
tax in the succeeding year, when the apportionment was declared
to be "a high act of arbitrary power and despotism and an exercise
of such authority as is utterly inconsistent with a British
Constitution." The assembly proceeded against the towns
and recovered judgment, but did not venture to put it into execution
and finally agreed that the refractory towns should
pay their portion of the last two taxes on the basis of the
estimate of 1762. The result of this dispute was the general
estimate of 1769. The act for taking the estimate was passed
in June, 1767. A committee of five (one from each county)
were directed to proceed into each town and make the valuations.
The principles laid down for the guidance of the committee
were much the same as those employed in 1762. Trading stock
however was to be estimated at its full value, except vessels
at sea and their cargoes which were to be estimated at two
thirds of their real value. Negro and other slaves and improved
lands were to be estimated at their full value, the
value of the lands to be reckoned at twenty years rental.
Houses and buildings of all kinds, including those used for
manufacturing purposes, were to be estimated at fifteen years
rental, horses and other farming stock at full value. Debts
74might be deducted from the personal estate if the "Committee
shall think the same best". The committee were given power to
examine on oath and to send for papers and records. If any
person refused to testify or give an account of his estate, he
was to be taxed two fold in the next colony rate. No colony
tax was to be levied until the valuation was made and approved,
when it was to be the standard for the apportionment of taxes
until a new estimate was taken. A protest was entered signed
by eight members asserting that twenty years purchase was an
over valuation of land, while fifteen years purchase was no
higher than, if indeed it was so high as, the real value of
houses and buildings, and that unimproved land as it yielded
no profit, should not be taxed. Land holders, it was claimed,
would bear a much larger share of the public burdens than in
justice they ought in proportion to the merchants and traders.
The report of the committee as at first presented was
subjected to careful re-examination and correction. The final
result was reported and accepted in February, 1769, and the
estimate was declared to be "the Law and Rule for future Taxation."
The estimate as adopted contained the following items:
Acres of woodland
241,685-3/4
Value of woodland
£236,946-5-6
75Rent at 20 and 15 years
1,356,830-16
Sum total of ratables of each town
517,578-9-1
Total
2,111,356-0-7
Polls
8,952.
Protests against apportionments under the estimate
were few. From October, 1774, to March, 1777, no tax was levied.
When it was found necessary to resume taxation a committee
was appointed to consider the changes which had occurred
in each town since 1769, and agree upon a new basis of apportionment.
The committee completed its work in one day, and
made a report containing an estimate which was accepted as a
temporary standard. The total valuation of the new estimate
was only a few pounds greater than that of eight years before.
The island towns, then in possession of the enemy, were relieved
at the expense of the main land, the most important change being
the removal of £100,000 from the valuation of Newport and
the placing of it on Providence, increasing the valuation of
the latter town by nearly eighty per cent. Providence, in its
desire to further the resumption of taxation, accepted this
large addition, but only on condition that it should not become
a precedent. The General Assembly however showed no desire
to take a new estimate and continued to apportion taxes
76in accordance with the estimate of March, 1777.
Providence, beginning to feel the burdens of the war in
the stoppage of its commerce and the demands of military service,
protested and refused to pay its tax as it had done ten
years before. The assembly reduced the valuation of Providence
first by £25,000, then by £50,000, and in October, 1778, passed
an act for taking a new estimate. As in 1769, a committee
of five was appointed and was directed to proceed into each
town and take account of ratable estates and all male polls of
twenty-one years and upwards, except ministers of the gospel
and officers and soldiers in the army and naval service. The
principles on which the estimate was to be taken varied but
little from those laid down for the estimate of 1769. All the
property enumerated was to be appraised at its full value,
"whether the said rateable Property be removed without the
limits of the state of not." The committee as before were
empowered, if they thought best, to deduct debts from personal
estate. No report was made until July, 1780. The committee
had visited each town "and with great care, and as much precision
as possible, have endeavored to obtain an exact account
of the real value of this state." The report was accepted and
the estimate declared to be the legal basis of apportionment.
77The total valuation was £2,778,145-10-0. In September
several towns complained that the estimate was erroneous, and a
committee was appointed to revise it. This committee reported
in November having increased the total valuation about £10,000,
and made considerable alterations in the relative portions of
the towns. This report was submitted to still another revision,
the final report however being presented at the same session.
The total remained unchanged and the changes made in proportions
assigned to the towns were, for the most part, not important.
This last report gives merely the total valuations of
the towns, but the earlier report of the November session comprises
the following headings:
Number of acres
518,112-3/4
Price per acre
£2-5s. to £70-10s-6d.
Value of real estate
2,788,145-10s.
In none of these estimates were the island towns included.
A valuation of these towns, in accordance with the
act of 1778, was ordered in June, 1783, and completed in October
of the same year. It showed a total of £502,227-5-0
which, added to the valuation of the mainland towns in 1780,
gave a total valuation for the state of £3,290,372-15-0.
78This was the last general estimate made before the adoption of
the constitution of the United States.
The first point which we notice in these valuations
is the prominent part played by the poll tax. On the basis
of the estimate of 1762, and a poll tax of six pence per one
thousand pounds, the poll tax supplied 20.7 per cent of all
receipts from taxes. In 1769, the proportion was 22.2 per
cent. This proportion increased of course with the growth of
population, and by 1774, must have amounted to 24 per cent,
but the diminution of the taxable population during the war
brought it down again to 22 per cent in 1780. As to the proportions
in which personal and real estate entered into the
valuation, personal estate formed about one third of the total
in 1762, and about one fourth in 1769, while, owing to the
destruction of personal property during the war, it had sunk
to about one-eighth in 1780. In all these estimates there is
a tendency to favor personalty, as represented in the growing
commercial interests, at the expense of the proprietors of
land. In 1762, money and trading stock was valued at only
one half of its true value, and in 1769, land was valued at
twenty years rental which must certainly have been a high valuation.
79A comparison of the proportions in which the various
towns contributed to the various taxes is instructive. The
figures following refer to the estimate of 1769. The whole
number of towns was twenty-eight. Eleven towns paid a larger
proportion of the total property tax than of the total poll
tax, showing they contained more than their proportionate
share of wealth. As a whole they comprised the territory which
borders on Narragansett Bay, and which had been long settled.
Together they contained 40.32 per cent of the rateable polls,
and 56.10 per cent of the property in the colony. The most
important towns among them were Newport, which contained 12.44
per cent of the polls, and 15.6 per cent of the property; Providence
which contained 5.06 per cent of the polls and 5.94 per
cent of the property, and South Kingstown which contained 4.78
per cent of the polls and 9.3 per cent of the property. As a
rule these were also the towns which contained the largest proportions
of personal property.
Of the property valued in Newport 47.4 per cent was
personal, in Providence 51 per cent. Newport contained 30 per
cent of all the personal property in the colony, Providence
12.4 per cent (i.e. the two commercial towns with 17.5 per cent
of the polls contained 42.4 per cent of the personal property)
and South Kingstown 6.2 per cent. Eleven towns out of the
80twenty-eight contained 77 per cent of the personalty. These
same towns contained 49.5 per cent of the polls.
The gain in valuation from £2,111,295-10-7 to
£3,290,372-15, between 1769 and 1780-1783, was entirely on
real estate, the personal property valuation remaining practically
stationary, owing to the destruction caused by the war.
There is a falling off in the share of taxes paid by
the commercial towns in proportion to their population. In
1782, Providence contained 8.23 per cent of the population,
but it paid only 6.98 per cent of the taxes. Newport's per
centage of population had fallen to 10.56 per cent and the per
centage of taxes to 7.81. On the other hand, the country towns
had gained proportionately. Taking Providence county, exclusive
of the town of Providence, we find that in 1769, it contained
26.64 per cent of the polls and 19.2 per cent of the
property, in 1782 it contained 25.27 per cent of the population
and 27 per cent of the property. There was but little
change in the relative positions of the other counties, Kings
County made a slight gain, and the other counties suffered a
slight loss, with the exception of Newport County. Here the
loss of the Island towns was great. In 1769, they contained
19.09 per cent of the polls and 26.7 per cent of the property
81while in 1783 they had but about 16 per cent of the population
and 15.2 per cent of the property.
Customs and Excise Duties.
82
Among the acts of the first assembly under the Patent
in 1647, occurs the following:
"It is ordered that the Dutch, French or other alliants,
or any Englishman inhabitating among them, shall pay the
like customs and duties, as we do among them for all such
goods as shall be imported for the English, except beaver."
This act was probably of little practical importance
as the trade of the colony during the seventeenth century was
very small. In 1655, an excise duty of five shillings was imposed
on every anchor of liquors and quarter cask of wine,
and three years later a like customs duty was added. The
revenue from both taxes at first went to the towns, but in
1674 it was transferred to the colony, as "the whole excise
seems almost all lost by neglect." The collection of the tax
was to be farmed out. Whether the tax was more productive than
under town government we do not know. It was repealed in
1686. Both customs and excise duties were introduced by Andros,
but disappeared with his government. In 1696, however,
the customs duties on liquors was reimposed by the colony, and
molasses was added to the list.[130] In 1707 slaves were added to
the dutiable articles, at £3 per head. About twenty or
83thirty were annually imported from the Barbadoes, and their
value was from £30 to £40 a piece. The income from this
source must have been of considerable importance at the period.
In 1715 the revenue from this tax in the naval officers' hands
was £289-17-3. In the same year the law was amended
so as to cover negroes brought in from the neighboring colonies.
The act seems to have remained in force until May, 1732,
when it was repealed under instructions from the English government.
There seems to have been no further imposition of
customs or excise duties on the part of the colony until the
period of the Revolution. The state, as we have seen, was left
in an exhausted condition at the close of the war. The people
were unwilling to continue the payment of taxes and were behind
on those already levied. The annual interest on the debt
was considerable.
A committee, appointed to devise means for supplying the
treasury, reported November, 1782, recommending the imposition
of customs and excise taxes. In February of the following
year, an act was passed in accordance with this recommendation
to take effect on the tenth of April following. Both customs
and excise duties were imposed. Collectors do not seem to
been appointed until May, and in June the act was repealed so
84that it was of little practical importance. At the same session,
however, its place was supplied by an act laying a duty
of two per cent ad valorem "on the Value, and at the Time and
place of landing of all Goods which shall be imported into this
State being of the Growth or Manufacture of any foreign State,"
the revenue, as before, to be devoted to the payment of interest
on the public debt. The act was to take effect on July 1.
The law was enforced with severe penalties. No imported
goods were to be landed without permit obtained, on
penalty of forfeiture of vessel and cargo. No dutiable goods
imported by land could be removed from the town into which
they were imported, or sold or consumed in that town without
a permit from the collector of impost, under penalty of forfeiture
or a fine equal to the value of the goods. In June,
1784, the duty was raised to two and one half per cent. It was
at this period that manufacturing industries began to take root
in Rhode Island, and, as a natural result, we find evidence of
the growth of the protective principle in tariff legislation.
In February of the following year a committee was appointed
"to draught an act laying an additional duty upon
hats, shoes, boots and such other articles of foreign manufacture
as may be manufactured within this State." In May
85an act was passed discriminating against British vessels. It
provided for an additional duty of 7 1/2 per cent on goods imported
in any vessel owned in whole or in part by British subjects.
The result of the work of the committee appointed in
February is seen in an act of June, 1785, entitled 'An Act for
laying additional Duties on certain enumerated Articles, and
for encouraging the Manufactory thereof within this State,
and the United States of America." The act is quite extensive
including the following articles:
25 %
Ready made garments, canes,
brush handles, warming pan
handles, mop sticks, tailors'
press and notch boards, house
bells, toys.
20 %
Scythes, hoes, leather goods.
12 %
Paper, blank books, pewter ware,
tin ware.
10 %
Tools for the use of
block makers, chaise makers,
tanners, curriers,
caulkers, shoe makers and
husbandmen, (sickles,
plane irons and saws excepted)
muffs, tippets,
ermine, candles, soap,
manufactured tobacco,
goldsmiths, silversmiths
and jewellers ware.
86Instrument and cabinet makers
work, frame chairs, porter, beer.
5 %
Cordage, twine.
Special Duties.
Axes and adzes (per doz.) 6s.-20s.
Cards (per doz. boxes) 12s.
Women's shoes (per pair) 1s. 1s. 6d.
Cheese 3d. per lb.
Wrought gold 6s. per ounce.
Clocks and gold watches 18s.
Carriages £ 3, 15s. - £ 15.
Loaf sugar (3d. per lb.)
Hats 1s. - 6d. - 3s.
Iron hollow ware 3s. per cwt.
Dressed and tanned leather 3d. per lb.
Wrought silver 1s. per ounce.
Silver watches 6s.
Though the purpose of the act was protective, it is
evident that in the case of many of the articles enumerated,
the duty was entirely a revenue tax. In March, 1786, steps
were taken towards laying an excise duty. A committee was appointed
to draw up a bill for the purpose. The committee reported
at the same session and an elaborate excise act was
passed, which was to go into effect on May 16; but at the
session in that month the act was suspended until the next
87session, when a committee of revision was appointed. There is
no farther mention of any legislation in regard to the excise
until December, when another excise law was passed to go into
effect on May 15, 1787, and remain in force for three years.
Neither of these acts seem to have been generally enforced.
No collectors were appointed under the act of March. Under
the December act collectors were appointed in May, 1787, but
there is no record of any subsequent appointments.
When government under the United States constitution
went into operation, in 1789, it became impossible for Rhode
Island to pursue an independent policy in regard to customs
duties, and the General Assembly at the May session passed a
law providing that the same duties, payable in the same money,
be collected in Rhode Island as should be ordered by Congress
for the United States. In September the assembly supplemented
this provision by enacting a law similar to that which had
been passed by Congress. Goods imported from the United States
and from North Carolina were exempt from duty. In May, 1790,
the state adopted the constitution and the power to levy impost
duties ceased.
The want of method in keeping accounts at the time
renders it impossible to state exactly the amount of revenue
received under the acts imposing import duties. I have found
88however nearly complete returns of the duties collected in
the counties of Providence and Newport, which contained the
principal posts of entry.
County of Providence.
(Includes receipts from October 1, 1783)
Total nominal receipts
£21,533-14-7 3/4
Receipts in paper money of 1786,
11,464-4-1
Receipts in specie
10,069-10-6 3/4
Specie value of paper money receipts
1,550-14-6 3/4
11,620-5-1 1/2
Value in present dollars
$42,414.
County of Newport.
(Includes receipts from July, 1783, May, 1789, and from Sept. 1789)
Total nominal receipts July, 1783, May, 1789,
18,900-1-8 3/4
Receipts in paper money of 1786,
10,131-12-8 3/4
Receipts in specie
8,768-1-0
Specie value of paper money receipts
2,181-10-4 1/2
Total specie value of receipts
10,949-11-4 1/2
Value in present dollars
$39,966.
Receipts from September, 1789,
3,202.
89Total
43,168.
Providence County
42,414.
Total for both counties
85,582.
Such figures, of course, are not exact, and it has
been impossible to find more than fragmentary returns from
other counties. Such counties were, however, comparatively unimportant.
It will probably not be far from the truth if we
place the total receipts under the customs acts for the period
of between six and seven years, when they were in force, at
something over $90,000 or about $14,000 a year. The interest on
the public debt must have amounted to between $30,000 and
$40,000 per annum, so that the revenue from customs duties fell
far short of satisfying the purpose for which it was imposed.
Tonnage Duties.
Tonnage duties were imposed as early as 1690, and continued
until Rhode Island entered the union. They were first
levied for the support of the fort and were payable in either
money or powder. About the middle of the eighteenth century
a light house was built and additional tonnage duties were imposed
for its support. The amounts varied from time to time,
according to the needs of the fort or light house, and there
was discrimination in favor of vessels engaged in home trade.
90In 1767, a time of peace, the duty imposed for the support of
the fort was 2 S., or 1 lb. of powder per ton for all vessels
above ten tons, not owned by inhabitants of the colony. The
"light money" was 4 1/2d. per ton for foreign vessels and 3s.
for each clearing for coasters.
Notes.
91
1. Gneist, Hist. of the Eng. Const., Vol. 1, p. 34.
In the year ending March 31, 1886, the net receipts
from domains, forests, &c., were only £380,000, out of a total
revenue of over £89,000,000, but it is interesting to notice
that even now by the ordinary revenue is understood "the old
hereditary property of the king, the original property of the
state, which belongs to the king independently of any vote of
Parliament," while by extraordinary revenue is understood "the
income derived from direct taxation, customs, and excises granted
by vote of Parliament," Gneist, Hist. Eng. Const. II, 346-7.
The earliest taxation was on land only. Taxation of
personal property was introduced by the Saladin Tithe in 1188.
It was the introduction of a poll tax which led to the Wat
Tyler rebellion of 1381. The first permanent tax was the
hearth money tax imposed in 1663. Much the greater part of the
taxes are now permanent.
4. In early times the fines were apportioned among those whose
neglect had caused the fine i.e. the freeholders with freeholdings,
including houses and profitable rights, as the basis
of assessment. (Gneist, Hist. Eng. Const. I, 375, 376.) The
system now becomes the household (whether freehold or not) "according
to the scale of the visible profitable property in the
parish." (Ib. II, 212.) The act itself reads that the overseers
of the poor shall have power to raise the necessary funds
"by Taxation of every inhabitant, Parson, Vicar and other, and
of every occupier of Lands, Houses, Tithes impropriate, Propriations
of Tithes, Coal Mines or saleable Underwoods in the said
Parish, in such competent Sum and Sums of Money as they shall
think fit."
5. 92No tax was ever levied in support of religion. The colony
as a whole seems to have neglected education. In 1640, however,
Robert Lenthall, school teacher and minister, was granted 104
acres of land by Newport, and 100 acres was appropriated for a
school "for encouragement of the poorer sort." Arnold's Hist.
of R.I., Vol. 1, p. 145. Providence also later made some provisions
for education.
6. Providence, Portsmouth, Newport and Warwick, founded between
1636 and 1642, were perfectly independent with full powers of
self government until united under what is known as the Patent
in 1647. This independent character of the towns is brought
out in W. E. Foster's Town Government in Rhode Island--John
Hopkins University Studies, Fourth Series.
8. 93Among the entries under the first day of which we have record
is an order for the appointment of a treasurer for the
"expending of the Towne's stock." (R.I. Col. Recs. I, 13)
Some months later it is provided that any one more than a quarter
of an hour late at a town meeting shall be fined 1s. 6d.
(ib. p. 15) An entry under the second year shows that payments
had been made for lands received by new comers, and like
payments are ordered to be made by future comers, but the
amounts are illegible. (Staples' Annals of Prov., p. 23) In
1661, Roger Williams in speaking of the year 1638, says it was
agreed that every person admitted to "injoying landes" should
pay 30s. to the common stock (R.I. Col. Recs. I, 23) And in
the articles of government in 1640, it is provided that every
one received as a townsman shall make the same payment (ib. 30)
The same provision is included in the plan for a new settlement
proposed by Roger Williams (ib. 40)
9. At Portsmouth the charge was 2s. per acre (R.I. Col. Recs.
I, 56)
10. In 1638, a fence was ordered to be built "the charge to be
borne proportionally to every mans allottment." (repealed). In
the same year two treasurers are chosen; it is ordered that
the highways be repaired and that a prison be built both to be
paid for out of the treasury. A land subsidy for building a
mill is granted and in 1643 a town watch is ordered to be kept
every night, also to be paid for out of the treasury. (R.I.
Col. Recs. I, 53, 57, 58, 59, 78.) Still more interesting is
the appointment of four men for the venison trade with the indians.
These "truck masters" are forbidden to give more than
three half pence a pound, "a farthing for each pound being allowed
to the treasury" (Ib. 63) Every inhabitant was ordered
to be provided with one musket, one pound of powder, twenty
bullets, two fademes of match, sword, rest and bandeliers,
(Ib. 54) On another occasion every man was ordered to have by
him four pounds of shot and two pounds of powder. (Ib. 77)
11. 94The treasurer was directed to pay to the secretary for
service done £19 and 10 acres of land, and to the sergeant £6.
In another instance he is ordered to make a payment of £57 2s.
4d. (R.I. Col. Recs. I, 90, 95) There is no evidence of the
payment of the judge and elders, who were both executive and judicial
officers.
12. R.I. Col. Recs. I, 87: This is the first statement (if
we except the payment according to allotments ordered at Portsmouth,
which was repealed. See above Note 10.) which we find
of a principle that could serve as a basis of taxation. Another
entry which might point either to payments for lands or taxes
is "It is ordered that such as shall bring in their acquittances from the Treasury to the Judge and Elders shall have
their Lands recorded." (ib. p. 99). That payments for land were
required would seem clear from an order of the General Court
of the inhabitants of Portsmouth and Newport, after the union
of the two towns, directing the "Treasurer to make demands for
all such monies as are due to the Treasurers for the Lands assigned
forth to particular men." (ib. 103)
13. 95R.I. Col. Recs. I, 122: The order directs "that the three
shillings a day allowance be taken off from the Officers."
The "Officers" might imply that all offices were paid, but
there has been no mention of payment except to the secretary
and sergeant. It is not unlikely that the magistrates received
fees in their judicial capacity.
14. A committee appointed to examine and balance the accounts
of the treasurers reported that £111, 3s. 4d. was due from the
treasury of Newport. The frequent examinations of accounts
which are ordered also show that financial matters are increasing
in importance.
16. This interruption was caused by William Coddington, a
citizen of Newport, who obtained from the Council of State in
England a grant to govern the islands of Rhode Island and Conanicut,
with a council of six men named by the people and approved by himself. The grant was repealed in Oct. 1652, but
mutual jealousies kept the towns apart till the date given.
17. 96Government under the Patent was marked by extreme decentralization.
At first all legislative powers remained with
the freemen of the towns; the committee could merely propose
measures and declare the decisions reached by the freemen.
The committee, however, tended to become the legislative body
and was regularly established as such on the resumption of the
government in 1654. (R.I. Col. Recs. I, 276 et seq.)
19. This continued until 1747. Arnold Hist. of R.I. II, 157.
20. There are several instances of laws imposing fines of
from £1 to £10 for refusal to bear office. A man could not be
compelled however to bear office for several years in succession.
In 1659, an assistant who had been elected several
times was excused from further service, and a law of 1665, imposing
a fine of £5 on constables for refusal to serve, provided
that the same man should not be elected more than once
in three years. By act of 1672, no man need serve as a deputy
for two courts in succession. More than this, a town law,
"declared all the inhabitants, though not admitted freemen,
liable to be elected to office," (Staples Annals of Prov. p.
118) By act of Assembly in 1670, any person judged capable of
holding public office might be elected a freeman whether he
desired it or not. (R.I. Col. Recs. II, 357).
21. 97The only legislative officers under the Patent who received
any pay were the commissioners from the towns, who were allowed
3s. a day payable by the towns, with a double fine for absence
(R.I. Col. Recs. I, 307). No salaries appear to have been
paid under the charter for the first few years. In 1666, (R.I.
Col. Recs. II, 167) 3s. a day was granted to all who served in
the general assembly or colony court of trials (except such as
had stated fees), payable in the former case by bills receivable
for taxes in the town of the holder and in the latter case
out of the general treasury. The fine for non-attendance was
double the pay. In April, 1672, these salaries were increased,
but the increase was repealed the next month, and in November
deputies wages were fixed at 2s. a day, payable by the town, with
a fine of £1 for non-appearance at the assembly or £2 in case
there was no quorum, for an assistant in the latter case the
fine was £5. (R.I. Col. Recs. II, 443, 456, 473) By acts of
1664 and 1666, a like fine had been imposed on magistrates absent
from the court of trials in case of no quorum. By act of
1680, (R.I. Col. Recs. III, 87) magistrates and deputies were
to be paid out of the general treasury at the rate of 7s. a week. Perhaps
this was a substitute for the act of 1679. This comprises all the legislation in the records on the subject. There
seems to be some doubt as to the extent of the action of these
laws. Arnold (Vol. I, 532) says "Salaries had occasionally
been paid to the civil officers, but most of the time public
service had been performed gratuitously." In any case the imposition
of fines for non-attendance must have gone far to make
the system self supporting.
22. 98The sergeant in particular was a considerable source of
expense. Several times as late as 1664, we find taxes of from
£5 to £25 levied for the payment of his bills, and an act of
1673, recites that the inhabitants have been "greatly oppressed
and grieved" by the sergeant's "great wages" and that henceforth
he shall receive but 3s. a day for attendance in the
general assembly, and simply his fees at the court of trials, instead
of "great fees at the Court of Tryalls, and four shillings
a day, alsoe" as heretofore.
23. A law of 1670, (R.I. Col. Recs. II, 361) provides that for
rates formerly or now ordered the treasurer shall have one
shilling in the pound for all he receives in provisions, but
nothing for what he shall receive in money or for any fines
now due the colony, "and what charge he shall be at he shall
be allowed for that besides." In 1671, (ib. 385) it is ordered
that for all (in money or other pay) that the treasurer has
received during the last, or shall receive during the coming,
year he shall be allowed twelve pence on the pound. An audit
of 1681, speaks of the treasurer's commissions as 5%. An audit
of the accounts of the treasurer under Andros show that the
commission was 10%, and this rate seems to have been continued
after the reestablishment of the colonial government. In the
case of the tax levied in 1679, the towns are ordered to pay
the treasurer's salary in addition to the tax, but as a rule
his commission seems to have been deducted from the receipts.
24. 99Later the colony, in some instances, made grants to meet the
expenses of certain of the roads and bridges of more than local
importance.
27. This is shown often in the wording of the laws; for example,
in the salary law of 1666. (see p. 97 Note 21) the treasurer
is ordered to make payment "out of those monies which
either by fine, forfeiture or otherwise, are brought into the
Treasury," and in the act granting diet and lodging in 1679,
(see ib.) the expense is to be met out of "the fines and forfeitures
due to the Collony." Taxes are not specified as a
source of revenue. The audit reports entered in the colony account
book show the same thing. The decentralization which
marked the government under the Patent is seen in the order
"that the Publick Treasurer shall only receive such fines, forfeitures,
amercements and taxes, as fall upon such as are not
within the liberties" of the four towns. (R.I. Col. Recs. I,
197). An act of 1656 (Ib. 334) provides that all "fines that are committed
about ye Generall Courts, as of juriemen, &c., shall all
returne and belong to ye Generall Treasurie." And in general
it was the fines imposed in the colony courts that were the
most fruitful sources of revenue.
28. 100R.I. Col. Recs. I, 223: The towns of Providence and Warwick
were to have each one barrel of powder, five hundred
pounds of lead, six pikes, and six muskets. Portsmouth was to
have two barrels of powder, one thousand weight of lead, twelve
pikes, and eighteen muskets; Newport, three barrels of powder,
one thousand weight of lead, twelve pikes, and twenty-four muskets.
29. A tax of £24 was levied for this purpose in November, 1658,
and in the following May another of £50 (R.I. Col. Recs. I,
395, 416). It is not quite clear whether or not the second was
meant to include the first.
30. Three years later the order had not been complied with.
Newport however had a prison under way. This was adopted as
the prison of the colony and the other towns were ordered to
contribute to the cost. The portion of the law ordering cages
to be built was repealed.
31. 101The claims of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Plymouth included
practically the whole territory of the colony. The
claim of Connecticut up to the bay on the west was not settled
until 1703, and the claim of Massachusetts (which had succeeded
to the Plymouth claim) up to the bay on the east was not settled
until 1746.
32. None of this tax was paid for some years, and the whole
amount was never received by Williams (See his letter to the
town clerk of Providence, Jan. 1680-81, printed in the Narragansett
Club Publications, Vol. 6, p. 400) Contributions
(amounting it was claimed to £200) seem to have been taken
up in Warwick and Providence to send Williams on his second
agency (See R.I. Col. Recs. I, 234, & II, 78), but he was
obliged to sell his trading house in Narragansett to support
his family during his absence (Arnold I, 239), and he seems to
have been compelled to support himself by teaching while in
England (Arnold I, 251). As he himself expresses it he was
"left to starve, or steal, or beg or borrow." (Letter to
Providence R.I. Col. Recs. I, 351). He was also obliged to sell
several islands in the bay owned by him to meet his expenses
incurred on his journeys to England (Arnold I, 105). Clarke
seems to have supported himself in part by preaching and other
means. (R.I. Col. Recs. II, 79)
33. 102It was first attempted to raise the necessary amount by contribution
(R.I. Col. Recs. I, 443). About £40 seem to have
been secured this way. Those who had contributed were allowed
to set off their contributions against their part of the rate.
34. Does not seem to have been fully paid Oct., 1663. (R.I.
Col. Recs. I, 506)
35. This tax was collected with the greatest difficulty. Hardly
any of it seems to have been paid for several years. A
"great part" remains unpaid in October, 1669, (R.I. Col. Recs.
II, 288) and we find measures taken for its collection in
certain places as late as May, 1671. (R.I. Col. Recs. II, 380-3).
In October, 1666, (ditto II, 183) it is mentioned that
"several persons" are "yett behind" in former rates.
36. Westerly had contributed £65 and was excused from the tax.
In May, 1671, (R.I. Col. Recs. II, 380 et seq.) a great portion
of this tax had not been assessed.
37. This was the first percentage tax. In May, 1674, "under
severall pretences few or none paid." (R.I. Col. Recs. II,
521). Some are also behind in former rates, (ditto 522). So
far as shown by the colony account book, the receipts from this
tax amounted to but a few pounds.
38. In May, 1679, several towns had not assessed the rate.
(R.I. Col. Recs. III, 33) An audit in July, 1681, shows that
£108 6s. 10d. is due on this and the rate of 1680, a considerable portion
of the deficiency being for the present tax.
39. 103The sum was paid down by Stephen Arnold, who was guaranteed
by the notes of several other persons who in turn were
to be paid out of the tax. In June, 1681, certain of those
who had given their notes to Arnold petition for relief, from
which it is evident that the tax had not been paid. The delinquent
towns are ordered to pay.
40. For delinquency in payment see notes 38 and 41.
41. The colony account book shows the receipt of but £59,
13s. 10d. up to September, 1686, from the deficiency of £108,
6s. 10d. (Note 38) and the present tax. More may have been received
for the accounts were left in an irregular manner, and
the custom of offsetting debts due from the colony against
rates may have prevented some payments being recorded at all.
On the other hand it was in the summer of 1686, that the colony
forfeited its charter so that it would not be strange if the
taxes due were not collected.
42. I have been able to find no trace of this tax in the colony
records, but such a tax seems to have been ordered by Andros
throughout his whole jurisdiction, and it is mentioned as
levied in Staples Annals of Providence, p. 177.
43. 104This tax as assessed in Providence amounted to £37 12s.
3d. of which £14 was poll money, giving the number of polls assessed
as 178. The number of separate property assessments
was 144. In the rate of £120 levied in the same year Providence
paid one sixth of the whole. Using this as a basis of
calculation the penny in the pound and poll tax would have
amounted to about £225. The other penny in the pound taxes
do not seem to have yielded quite so much. The three perhaps
yielded about £600.
44. R.I. Col. Recs. I, 104-5. Herdsmen or lightermen detained
on their necessary employment were subject to a fine of
only 2s. 6d., and farmers might leave one man at home subject
to the same penalty.
45. R.I. Col. Recs. I, 153: Provision was also made for archery.
Every person above seven years of age was required to be supplied
with bow and arrows and to practice shooting. (Ibid 186)
46. R.I. Col. Recs. I, 372: In 1673, those also were exempted
who could not fight without violating their conscience. A
concession to the Quakers, but the abuse to which the law was
subject led to its repeal a few years later.
47. The arms required by the act of 1647, were "a musket, one
pound of powder, twenty bullets, and two fadom of match, with
sword, rest bandaliers all completely furnished." By act of
1665, in addition to his arms each man must be furnished with
two pounds of powder and four pounds of lead or shot. (R.I.
Col. Recs. II, 117). Under the law of 1677 the requirements
were one gun or musket, one pound of powder, and thirty bullets
(Ibid 570). The act of 1665, speaks of the burden on the poorer
citizens in keeping their arms in repair, and ammunition on
hand, and provides that to meet these expenses nine shillings
a year in current pay shall be paid to each enlisted soldier,
the necessary amount to be levied by rate. No future law makes
any mention of such payment and service was probably
as a rule without recompense.
48. 105We have of course no accurate records of the number of the
population at that time. From the data which we do have however
it is probably safe to say that when the four towns came
together in 1647, the colony contained less than one thousand
inhabitants, and that the number gradually increased until at
the end of the period, it amounted to between four and five
thousand. The royal commissioners reported in 1665, that the
"Colony hath its scattered townes upon Rhode Island, two upon
the maine land, and four small villages" (R.I. Col. Recs. II,
129). By 1678 the towns had increased to nine, at which number
they remained for many years. Certain parts of the colony, as
the island and some of the country in the south and to the
west of the bay (the Narragansett country) seem to have been
very fertile. Say the commissioners above quoted "In this Province
also is the best English grasse, and most sheepe, the
ground very fruitfull, ewes bring ordinarily two lambs, corn
yields eighty for one, and in some places, they have had corne
sixe years together without manuring." The industry of the
colony at this period was wholly agricultural and tended to
stock and dairy farming rather than to the raising of grain.
Indeed the colony seems on some occasions to have been dependent
on its neighbors to supplement its own supply of the latter
article. The colonists seem to have been comfortably off,
without either great wealth or great poverty. In Providence
estates were of small size (a few acres), life was on a very
humble scale, the inhabitants enjoying only the real necessities.
On the island estates were also small in size but there
was more wealth, and the Narragansett country a few years
later saw the growth of large stock farms and plantations,
sometimes five, six, or even ten square miles in extent, managed
by slave labor. Perhaps the condition of the colony as a
whole during the period from 1647 to 1689, is best summed up
in the words of Governor Ward in a letter to the Board of
Trade many years later, "for, although we were not rich, yet
poverty was a stranger among us, till the year 1710." An excellent picture of the early economic development of Providence
can be found in Dorr's "Planting and Growth of Providence," published
as No. 15 of the Rhode Island Hist. Tracts. A description
of the "Narragansett Planters" is given by Mr. Edward Channing
(Johns Hopkins University Studies, Series IV, No. III).
Not only were the people of that time lacking in wealth according
to the standard of today, but the organization of their
economic life was entirely different from that we now know.
Each family possessed a sufficiency of land, but produced only
enough to meet the current needs of the household. There was
no chance for saving, investment and accumulation; there was
no adequate money system. All this would make a tax fall much
more heavily than under our present conditions. Another circumstance
that added to the burden was that taxes were not levied
continuously, a small amount each year, but in considerable
amounts, at intervals of several years. The colony suffered
greatly at the time of Philips war. Warwick and a large
part of Providence were destroyed, the inhabitants taking refuge
on the island. All these considerations must be taken into
account in the endeavor to form a judgment of the burden of
taxation during the period.
49. 106In the letter from Roger Williams to the town clerk of
Providence, already mentioned (note 32) he says that taxation
in Rhode Island is far lighter than in any other colony. He
also mentions that the charter cost about £1,000, while that
of Connecticut cost £6,000. The letter itself is a plea for
the more prompt payment of rates.
53. That these loans or contributions were often only for a
few pounds is expressive of the poverty of the treasury. The
occasional reports entered in the colony account book give us
some idea of the financial transactions of the colony at this
time. The amount entered as due the colony from May, 1672,
to May, 1673, was £33, all from fines (£8 from jurors fines),
of which £23 12s. had been received. In August, 1673, there
was reported due £64 14s. 4d. for rates and fines unpaid between
1664 and 1670. The amount expended from May, 1672, to
August, 1673, was £21 6s. 3d. for jury dinners, provisions for
the general court (wine and brandy), for transportation of public
officers, for books for the treasurer, for capturing a prisoner,
for support of prisoners, for hanging prisoners, for messengers
to and from Plymouth. The audit committee in August, report
£137 6s. due from the colony. The receipts entered from October,
1673, to May, 1675, are £125 9s. 10d. of which £95 is
specified as coming from fines, and £3 12s. from rates (the
farthing in the pound rate of 1673), the remainder not being
specified. This may not be the amount actually received, but
rather what was known to be due the treasury, for the amount
entered as expended between May, 1672, and April, 1677, was
£101 2s. 3d., the most important items being as before jury dinners.
(£7 1s. 8d.) criminal matters (£ll 16s. 6d.), carriage
of public officers (£2 11s.), general sergeant (£23 1s. O.)
general recorder (£17 11s.) The committee to audit the accounts
of Peleg Sanford whose term of office as treasurer was
from May, 1678 to May, 1681, reported payments amounting to
£392 1s. 9d., largely for surveys made in the Narragansett
country, expenses in connection with the boundary line, and
other expenses similar to those previously mentioned. In the
greater part of the payments, however, only the name of the person
paid and not the purpose is given. Some of these payments may
have been on account of expenses in connection with the war. Fines form a
principal element of the receipts, but the principal item was
£299 13s. 2d. from the taxes of 1678 and 1680. The expenditures
entered between September, 1681, and September, 1686,
amounts to only £82 0s. 11d. largely for jury dinners and
payments to the sergeant and recorder. The audit of the accounts
of the treasurer under Andros show nominal receipts of
£213 6s. 8d. from taxes, and expenditures of £232 7s. 1d, the
principal items being the court houses and the bounty on wolves,
the purposes for which the taxes were laid, and payment of the
sheriff. (£18 4s.).
54. 108One of the complaints made against the colony by Bellemont
in 1699 was, "They raise and levy taxes and assessments
upon the people, there being no express authority in the charter
for so doing." (R.I. Col. Rec. III, 386). Article IV, Sec.
10, of the present constitution provides that "The general assembly
shall continue to exercise the powers they have heretofore
exercised, unless prohibited in this constitution," but
makes no more definite grant of the right to tax. It would
seem that this right has never been specifically granted to the
assembly.
55. The separation took place in 1696, Arnold I, 533.
56. During the early years of the colony there were several
outlying districts (Block Island, Conanicut, and certain districts
which afterwards became Kingstown and Greenwich) not
yet incorporated into towns. For those places assessors were
generally appointed by the general assembly, collection was by
the general sergeant. By 1678, however, these places had all
attained to the dignity of towns.
57. R.I. Col. Recs. I, 306: If any person refused to assist
an officer in gathering rates he was to be fined ten shillings.
58. 109R.I. Col. Recs. I, 227: Those individuals that did not
pay their tax within twenty days were to be liable "in Generall,
and each man in particular x x to the penealtie of the forfeiture
of ten pounds," imposed by the court of commissioners
upon the town for failure to pay its quota. Both of these provisions
are also found in the act ordering that the magazines be
supplied in 1650. (Ibid 223)
59. In the act ordering the erection of prisons in 1655, the
assembly chose three men to make the rate in each town except
Newport, for which four were chosen. Each town was empowered to
add to the number, or to substitute others for those chosen.
These same men were to have the charge of building the prisons.
(R.I. Col. Recs. I, 311). The several acts in regard to the
rates of 1662 and 1664, do not prescribe the machinery of assessment
and collection except where extraordinary measures
are adopted as a result of non-payment. In other cases it is
simply ordered that the inhabitants of the towns meet and assess
the rate. It does not seem probable that a full town
meeting would undertake to apportion a rate. It is more likely
a committee of assessors would be appointed for the purpose.
The law of 1665, providing for the military assessment orders
the appointment of men to make the rate. An act of October,
1670, directs each town to choose a convenient number of persons
to make the rate ordered the June before. After 1678, the
records of Providence show that the election of assessors was
customary. They were elected for each tax. It was not till
well into the next century that assessors became regular town
officers.
60. 110It is probable that in the earlier years each individual
was his own collector, the constable being sent for the rate
only on failure to pay. Before long, however, the constable
must have become practically the collector. A law of June,
1684, provides that all future rates shall be gathered by the
town constables who were to be allowed two shillings on the
pound for their services, and to forfeit double their fees in
case of neglect (R.I. Col. Recs. III, 162)
62. Taxation according to "strength and estate," as it usually
reads, is the almost unvarying form in which these early
colonists expressed their idea of equality in taxation. It
would be difficult to find a better expression.
63. Payment however must be made in what may be kept in a
store house three months without damage.
64. This is explained as follows, "or that is accordinge to
tenn upon the hundred a yeare forbearance". This and a like
reference further on in the text would seem to show that it
was ten per cent interest which was to be charged on rates not
paid when due and that the usual rate of interest was five
per cent.
65. 111The only case before the time of Andros was the farthing
in the pound tax levied at the time of the passage of the law.
Very little seems to have been received from this tax. The
following provision of the law may afford some explanation.
"All rates to be paid in country pay, accordinge to price of
wooll twelve pence a pound; and to vallue their estates according
as it would be worth to pay a debt in old England."
It was added by way of explanation at the next session, "every
penny of English money to be the value of four pence here."
From other laws &c., it appears that the English pound sterling
was only a little more than twice as valuable as the
pound of "country pay" so that a valuation at the rate of four
to one would be an undervaluation. And again, wool was usually
received in payment at six or seven pence a pound so that
payment at the rate of wool twelve pence a pound would be
payment in a depreciated currency.
66. It should be noted however that the magistrates were
also members of the councils of the towns in which they lived.
67. It was a common thing to make the rate makers, whether
appointed by the town or the assembly, responsible for the
rate in case it was not made. The same is true for the constables
and sergeants in case it was not collected. The
reasons for the non-payment of taxes seem to have been political
rather than economic. All through this period, particularly
in the early part, the central government, as we have
said, was weak and the colony was torn by dissensions. There
does not seem to have been entire harmony between the main
land and the island, and it was in the main land towns and outlying
districts that the greatest difficulty was found in
collecting taxes. Warwick protested strongly against paying
her portion of the £600 tax to pay Clarke in 1664, (R.I. Col.
Recs. II, 78) claiming that most of the time Clarke had been
merely the agent of the island. If the tax must be levied,
the town prayed that it might be levied on the Indians who
had intruded on their lands and stolen their goods, or by
"just fines and amersements, layd upon such in the Collony as
have not only gone about, but allso have betrayed the Collony."
This tax was not collected in Warwick for six or seven years.
There were also internal dissensions in the towns themselves,
particularly in Providence where the opposing parties seem to
have been of nearly equal strength. In 1641, the inhabitants
of Pawtuxet, an outlying district of Providence, submitted to
Massachusetts jurisdiction and was not permanently reunited to
Rhode Island until 1658, (Arnold I, 111). Until 1703 the
conflicting claims in Narragansett country continued to interfere
seriously with the exercise of jurisdiction in that country,
sometime rendering it altogether impossible. Another
cause which rendered collection difficult was the custom of
offsetting debts due from the colony against rates. One of
the provisions enacted at the same time with the sedition act
was "neither shall any persons plea that the Collony is in
his debt, be of any force or offset to his or their said rate
on that pretence, untill the end be answered for which the
rate is or shall be made." Similar acts were passed on many
other occasions. Nevertheless offsetting rates against debts
was customary and the practice is authorized by a general law
of 1684. (R.I. Col. Recs. III, 165)
68. 112R.I. Col. Recs. II, 438: The act speaks of "a covetous or
ffactious and mallicious sperritt appeeringe in sundry townes
and places of this Collony; who oppose all or any rates, and
thereby prevailinge, by their deluded adherents in overpowering
the more prudent and loyall partys in such towne and place,
to the frustration of the most necessary and needfull ends for
which such rates are levied."
70. 113It does not seem quite clear whether this provision means
merely that each town should be represented, or that each town
should have its full representation. Arnold (I, 365) thinks the
latter. When the tax of 1673 was levied no deputies are recorded
as being present from New Shoreham (Block Island) or
Westerly. The great distance in the one case and the interference
of Connecticut in the other, rendered attendance from
those towns very uncertain and may have caused their absence
to be necessarily disregarded. Only five deputies from Newport
and one from Warwick however are reported as "engaged." This
would make it seem doubtful if a complete representation was
actually required. An act of April, 1678, (R.I. Col. Recs. III,
6.) repealed this act of 1672, and provided that the general
assembly should consist (as provided in the charter) of the
governor or deputy governor with six assistants, "and soe many
of the freemen as shall be elected in each respective towne,
x x x or the major part of them then present," who should have
to make laws and levy taxes, provided however that no tax
should be levied without notice given to each town, that the
"townes may accordingly by their representatives give their due
attendance." A year later the restriction was removed and the
assembly resumed its old powers. (R.I. Col. Recs. III, 53).
71. Arnold II, 502: Under the Andros government (in the case
of the per centage taxes and the £120 tax ordered in December,
1688) a return seems to have been made to the system of assessment
by town councils. A copy of a warrant, dated July 20, 1687,
from John Usher, treasurer and receiver general of his majesty's
revenue in New England, to the constable and selectmen of
Providence is preserved among the papers of the historical society.
The constable is ordered to call a town meeting for the
choice of a "commissioner" who, with the selectmen, is to make
a list of all males over sixteen and "a true Estimation of all
reall & personall Estates," as provided in the act of Andros
and council, and then to assess a poll tax of 1s. 8d. (members
of his majesty's council exempt) and a property tax of a penny
in the pound. The commissioner was then to meet with the commissioners
of the other towns of the county (Rhode Island),
when as a body they were to "examine x x & correct & perfect"
the rate lists according to the true meaning of the act and
transmit the result to Usher, together with the names of the
constables in each town to whom warrants for collection were to be
issued. I have not been able to find the act of Andros and his
council here referred to, but it seems to have included the
provisions contained in the warrant and also a table of values
at which the different kinds of property were to be estimated.
It is in these taxes levied by Andros that we first meet with
the poll tax which was soon to become a part of the regular
system of taxation adopted by the colony.
72. 114These proceedings are to be found in the town records Vol.
III, p p. 12-15. A table of values such as that given in
the text was not always adopted when a rate was to be levied,
but the rate of assessment seems often to have been left to
the discretion of the assessors. In the case of the £160
rate of 1684 a committee was appointed to "Consider what lands
may be deemed Rateable." The committee report "That all Meadowes
& Orchards & all other improved lands what so Ever it is
yt is inclosed, is Rateable, and as for Cattell, That all Sorts
of Cattell upward of a yeare old are Rateable," but no table
of values is reported. The number of assessors varied from
three to five. They were prominent men of the community and
there was a tendency to reelect the same individuals for the
service. In a list of twenty-two assessors appointed between
1678 and 1687 there are only eleven different individuals.
73. The following is the account of the rateable estate of
Daniel Abbott, like Whipple a prominent citizen. "My house &
Land at home, & yt in ye neck that seem to be fenc't, and ye
3d part of a share of meddow in my Custody wth ye demolished
orchard of Tho. walling. 2 Cows, one of them farrow, a of 3
yeares & vantage steers one horse, & one Maire 5 poor swine and
as oe household-things you may be pleased to vew them yorselves,
we have but one poor bed of or owne Saith Daniell Abbott Memoorand
a yoak of oxen yet." An entry on the back of this list
shows that about 290-1/2 acres of land had been laid out to
Abbott, more than the usual amount it would appear. Much of it
was probably wild land. An entry in the colonial records (II,
415), in 1671, shows us also the character of property at the
time. The inhabitants of Westerly petitioned the assembly to
send thither persons to take an "inventory of their personal
estate." The assembly accordingly delegated certain persons
to "take an exact inventory of the personal estate of each inhabitant,
consisting either of house, household stuff, goods,
cattle, horse kinde, or any other chattels whatever."
74. 115"The first grand period of Rhode Island history, the formation
period, was ended. The era of domestic strife and outward
conflict for existence, of change and interruption, of
doubt and gloom, anxiety and distress, had almost passed. The
problem of self-government was solved, and a new era of independent
action commenced". (Arnold I, 519)
75. The exemption was granted in 1690. (R.I. Col. Recs. III,
274). It would seem to be uncertain how long it lasted as in
1707 (Ib. IV, 24) a law is passed exempting the "Governor x x x;
his dwelling house" and its conveniences from taxation during
his term of office. The other legislation during the period
in regard to the payment of public officers was as follows.
In 1698, the governor's salary was increased to £30 and, in
1701, to £40. In addition the assembly in many years voted
him a gratuity, amounting sometimes to as much as his salary.
In 1695 deputies were allowed, apparently out of the general
treasury, 3s. a day, with a double fine for non-attendance.
In 1698, the towns were ordered to pay the deputies, but in
1703 it was again ordered that they be paid out of the colony
treasury. On account of the increasing revenue the treasurer's
fees were reduced to one shilling in the pound in 1698, and to
six pence in 1705. Before 1702, the agents were inhabitants
of the colony, sent over to England by the assembly. In that
year Penn, then in England, was intrusted with the interests of
the colony. He employed for the purpose a solicitor, William
Wharton, at £40 a year. In March, 1708-9, the assembly
granted Wharton £30 a year additional for past services, to
cover expenses, and appointed him agent for the future with
£80 a year salary.
76. 116It seems to have been intended to send the money to aid
other colonies. In July, 1695, the rate was to a great extent
uncollected, however, and none of it seems to have been applied
to the purpose intended. With the exception of the May and
June sessions of 1691, and August, 1692, no records of the
assembly are known to exist, for the period October, 1690, to
July, 1695.
77. 117During this period however the colony seems to have run
into debt, which was defrayed out of future taxes.
78. The loose way in which the treasury accounts were kept
does not permit us to show exactly how much of the revenue
went for each of these objects. It is possible to make an estimate
of some value, however. After the governor's salary
had been increased to £40, and including the special grants
frequently made to him, the payments made to the legislative
and executive officers amounted, probably, to about £150 a
year. The payments made to agents for the period 1695-1710,
were probably not far from £1,000. The whole cost of the
civil government, including the support of the agent, seems on
the average not to have exceeded £500 a year. It was probably
under rather than over that amount. The remainder were military
expenditures, the most important being on account of the
expeditions of 1709 and 1710.
79. This census is included in a report, containing quite a
full account of the condition of the colony, sent by Governor
Cranston to the Board of Trade in reply to their inquiries
(R.I. Col. Recs. IV, 56). It probably cannot be depended on
for accuracy, and would seem to be rather an under estimate.
Some years before the militia, which is here given at 1362, had
been estimated at 2,000. This however was doubtless too high.
80. 118This law had principally to do with the administrative
side of taxation. It was doubtless established by custom that
all property was taxable. The tax law as it stands on the
statute book today is hardly more than administrative; as in
1703, everything is supposed to be taxable, except what is
specially exempted.
81. A committee was appointed to draw up a law for valuing
lands and cattle, and if upon examination it was found that
any town had been overrated a rebate was to be allowed to it
out of the next tax. The committee reported the present law
sufficient, and the only additional legislation at this time
was a grant to the magistrates to "regulate anything appearing
defective" in the law, and the provision that the treasurer
of each town should be regarded as the deputy of the general
treasurer.
82. R.I. Col. Recs. III, 300. The magistrates were ordered
to call town meetings "with all expedition for choice of the
"three men." It was further ordered "that there be a Commissioner
chosen in each town, to meet with the men that shall be
chosen in each town, to assess the said rate of two pence per
pound, and to adjust the proportions, and sign with each Committee,
and return the same to the General Treasurer." It
will be remembered that there was a tax officer with a similar
title at the time of the Andros government (note 71), His duties
were different from those of the present commissioner.
In fact it is difficult to see how the latter differed from the
other three men referred to. The number of assessors does not
seem to have been definite. In the case of the penny in the
pound tax of 1695, the towns were to choose "two or three"
men and the following year they were to choose as many as they
should see fit. In the case of both taxes in 1695, tables
were adopted stating the amount of tax to be collected on certain
kinds of personal estate, not the valuation of the estate
as in the table given on page 22. The following is the table
adopted for the penny in the pound tax:
Oxen, four years old and upwards, at three pence per head
00 00 30
Steers, three years old, and all cows at two pence per head
00 00 20
All two year old, a penny per head
00 00 10
All three year old, at half penny per head
00 00 01
All sheep at one year's old and upward, at five pence per score
00 00 50
All swine above a year old at a half penny per head
00 00 01
All horses and mares above three years old, at three pence per head
00 00 30
All two years old horses and mares, at one penny per head
00 00 10
All year olds, at a half penny per head
00 00 01
All negro men servants, per head
00 01 80
Negro women servants, per head
00 00 100
It is evident that the property in the above table is taxed on
its value and not on the yearly profit and, in want of further
information, it would be unsafe to infer that the provision
for taxing lands, houses, and trademen according to profit
was intended to introduce anything in the nature of an income
tax. What evidence we have tends to show that the tax was assessed
not on profits, but on the value of the property, in determining
which value the yearly profit was probably the most
important consideration.
83. 119The best account of the commerce of the colony is to be
found in the report to the Board of Trade in 1708, already referred
to. (note 74) The land on the island had been well
taken up by this time and the younger generation in that part
of the colony was betaking itself, in the words of the report,
"to trades and callings," especially to navigation for which
their situation so well fitted them. Twenty-nine vessels were
now owned in the colony in place of the four or five of twenty
years before, and all but two or three were owned in Newport.
Ship building also became an important trade, no less than
eighty-four vessels having been built in the colony from 1698
to 1708. Direct foreign trade existed with the Bermudas, the
West Indies, Madeira, Fayal and Curacoa, the colony sending
out lumber, beef, pork, dairy products, horses, cows, onions,
cider, rum, and, sometimes money, and receiving in return sugar,
molasses, cotton, ginger, indigo, pimento, rum, English goods,
Spanish iron, brasalleta, wines, salt and cocoa. Some of these
articles, together with the products of the colony, were taken
to all the coast colonies to the South who gave in return, rice,
pitch, tar, turpentine, valuable woods, skins, flax, pork,
grain, and rigging. With England the colony had no direct
trade but received most of its English goods through Boston,
paying for them in dairy products and money. It was estimated
that £20,000 in cash was annually sent to Boston on this account.
It is evident that the colony had entered upon a new
phase in its economic development.
84. 120The records of Providence do not show but the provision
was complied with.
85. 121The poll tax as we have seen was introduced under Andros,
but does not seem to have been assessed since his fall. It
must be remembered that the present act was not a general law
(see p. 33). How the law of October, 1699, (note 88) may have
affected this question we do not know. The law of January,
1703-4, is chiefly administrative and makes no mention of a
poll tax, and it would hardly seem to fall under the law of
May, 1704. (Note 90). It seems probable on the whole that the
poll tax was not as a rule assessed. The wording of the law
in 1707, exempting the governor from taxation might seem to imply
that a poll tax was assessed, (see note 75)
86. Indians had been exempted as early as 1672. (R.I. Col.
Recs. II, 436)
87. For this law see R.I. Col. Recs. III, 343, et seq. If
those appointed to take account of estates neglected the work
they were to be fined twenty shillings.
88. The most important of the modifying laws seems to have
been passed in October, 1699. It is referred to as the model
law in subsequent acts assessing taxes before January, 1703-4.
This law is unfortunately not preserved in the records, but
references go to show that it did not essentially modify the
administrative features of the law of the previous year. By
act of August, 1702, any assistant or justice neglecting his
duty under the act was made subject to a fine of £20.
89. 122For this law see R.I. Col. Recs. III, 484, et seq. The
likeness to the present law is seen still more fully in some
of the details of administration which have not been changed
since that time. Later some of the towns seem to have been divided
into districts and constables assigned to, and held responsible
for, each district. The fine imposed on an assessor
for neglect of duty was 40s.
90. R.I. Col. Recs. III, 501. The oath was as follows: "You
A.B., do, on your solemn engagement, hereby declare the accounts
and list as you present of your estate, is the whole
and true account of all your rateable estate, as to your knowledge
you know of (or is in your care and custody), and this
you declare to be the truth, and nothing but the truth, upon
the perill of the penalty of perjury". The same act declares
that what is rateable estate shall be known by the act of 1698.
That act contains on the subject only what is given in the previous
pages. I have unfortunately found no return of estates
by individuals for this period, but there is no reason to suppose
it different from what it was before or after; that is,
it included everything with the possible exception of clothes
and necessary household furniture.
91. There were some three or four such returns ordered in all
and severe penalties were sometimes enacted for neglect. Complaints
against the apportionment among the towns do not seem
to have been frequent, though there are one or two instances
of dissent on record.
92. 123As earlier, the difficulty was political rather than economic.
There seems to have been in the colony at this time a
party, how strong it would be difficult to say, in sympathy
with the efforts to curtail the charter privileges. There were
also disputes between the towns as to boundaries, while the
colony dispute with Connecticut was not settled until 1703.
In 1700 the sheriff while attempting to collect a tax in Westerly
was carried off to Connecticut. It is worthy of note in
connection with this difficulty of collection that the severity
of the penalty seems to have had little influence. The assessors
or collectors were not infrequently made responsible
for the whole tax in case of neglect, but taxes were not promptly
collected until government had become firmly established
and could rely on the united support of the people. When it
was strong enough to enforce the penalties, the necessity had
passed away. In the copy of the laws sent to Bellemont in
1699, the sedition act (see page 20) seems to have been
included, though repealed nearly thirty years before. The act
was again repealed in March, 1702.
93. 124The first mention of the constables fees for collection which I
have seen was in 1684, and allowed two shillings on the pound.
As long as this lasted collectors' fees alone eat up ten per
cent of the tax, but by the law of January, 1703/4, the fees were
reduced to one shilling. Assessors were paid by the day, the
amount varying from two to five shillings. The act just referred
to placed it at two shillings and six pence, and a law
of 1705 provided that no rate maker should charge for more
than three days. The most full and detailed statement of loss
on the articles in which taxes were paid, is in the accounts
of the treasurer under Andros. It was as follows: Loss by
935 bushels of corn and rye £20-0-10, by 9 ferkins of
butter £1-12-1. Twelve bushels of corn had been sold
and delivered but no payment had been made. In addition there
were the following expenses and losses: Freight £5-3-4,
warehouse room for 1300 lbs. of wool £1, turning corn ten or
twelve times 18s., "275 lbs. of wool taken out of my house £9
3-4." "Money taken out of Major Goulding's house £32-10-0."
As the total receipts did not exceed £230 it will be
seen that expenses and losses eat up a good part of the revenue.
They were in this case probably far larger than usual,
but they must always have been considerable in amount, while
no satisfactory money existed, in quantities sufficient for
the needs of the community.
94. 125R.I. Col. Recs. III, 357, et seq. The proceeds of the
tax were to be for the poor, highways and bridges. It was indeed
a town and not a colony tax.
97. The amount received as stated in the report on the treasurer's
accounts in 1711, was £2,032-19-2. The amount outstanding
on bonds given for land was £1,523-17-5. Arnold
(Vol. II, p. 37, Note) says that the report of a committee,
subsequently made, shows that £3,795-15s.-10d. was received
at the rate of about 1s. 6d. per acre.
98. In 1709, four ferries were leased for seven years at an
annual rental of £4. This is the last record that I find of
any payment made to the general treasury. "Leases" were afterwards
spoken of, but these seem to refer simply to grants of
the right of ferriage, bonds being required for the observance
of the law in regard to ferries. In 1748, the colony purchased
two of the ferries but does not seem to have been successful
in its enterprise and sold them again in 1750.
99. In 1837, Mr. E. R. Potter published a pamphlet entitled
"A brief Account of Emissions of paper money made by the Colony
of Rhode Island". It has been reprinted with additions in the
"Historical Sketches of American Paper Currency" (first series)
by H. Phillips. This little work contains about all the facts
which are accessible, including the reports made to the General
Assembly, and much that relates to Massachusetts and Continental
money. In 1880, it was reedited and enlarged by Mr. Sidney
S. Rider, and published as number eight of the Rhode Island
Historical Tracts. Mr. Rider has added an almost complete
list of the fac similes of the various issues, but has omitted
other portions which are of more value to the economic student.
100. 126Provision was made for sinking these bills by an annual
tax of £1,000, (R.I. Col. Recs. IV, pp. 100, 106, 150) The
law however does not seem to have been vigorously enforced and
in some instances the taxes collected were diverted to other
purposes than that intended. Five payments of this annual tax
are entered on the credit side of the treasurer's accounts, the
last being in 1715. In that year the first bank was issued
and the sinking annually of £1,000 of the earlier bills was
one of the purposes to which the interest was to be applied.
The provision was not carried out. No further taxes for the
purpose seem to have been collected. From the manner of keeping
accounts at that time, it is not quite clear whether those
taxes entered as received in the treasurer's books had been
actually received in full. Up to 1715, only £1,102-8s. 6d.
had been burnt. As regards the legal tender character of this and future
issues there seems to be some uncertainty. The bills of the first
issue of £5,000 emitted in 1710, read "This indented bill x x x
shall be equal in value to money, and shall be accordingly accepted
by the general treasurer and receivers subordinate to
him, in all public payments". The law as printed in the colony
records (Vol. IV, p. 96) makes no further reference to the
subject of tender, but, as printed in the Digest of 1744, (p. 43)
enacts that the bills "shall be received and paid for the same
value and equal to the current Coin passed in this Colony, for
Goods or any other thing bought or sold in all Payments to be
made whatsoever; (Specialties only excepted)". In the other
issues of 1710 and 1711, it is provided in some cases that the
bills shall pass in "all Payments", in other cases that they
shall pass in "all publick Payments" as the bills of the first
issue do. The bills of the bank emitted in 1715, were declared
to be of the same tenor as those of former issues, but in the
same year there was passed an act "making public bills of credit
of this colony, to be lawful pay, on tendering the same for
all bonds and specialties." This caused so much opposition that
in the following year it was repealed and the act declared to
extend "to no other bonds and specialties that what mention
current passable bills of credit of this colony, or of any of
the governments of New England." (R.I. Col. Recs. IV, 210)
The other bills emitted up to 1740, were "of the same Tenor"
as those previously issued. The act emitting the bank of 1740,
declares the bills equal to silver at 6s. 9d. per ounce and
that it "shall be accordingly accepted by the Treasurer, and
the Receiver thereof, in all Payments." (Dig. 1744, p. 230).
In the following year 6s. 9d. of this "new tenor" was declared
equal to 27s. of the previous issues or "old tenor", and a sufficient
tender for the same in all payments. Courts of Justice
were to govern themselves accordingly. (Dig. 1744, p. 237).
Subsequent issues until 1750, were in accordance with these
acts. The most severe of the laws to enforce circulation was
passed in connection with the issue of March, 1750. (Digest
1752, pp. 86, 99). The act recites that the depreciation of
the bills of credit is due to "illegal Practices" in "offering
from time to time, for Gold and Silver, and Bills of Exchange,
for Sterling Money," larger sums in bills than was stated in
the acts of emission. The new bills were declared equal to
silver at 6s. 9d. per ounce--to 16s. "new tenor" and to 64s.
"old tenor". Any person who should receive or pay bills of
credit at any higher rate for gold, silver, or bills of exchange,
was to be fined £50 in the new bills. In case of suits
for money due (specialties excepted) the courts were to make
their judgments in accordance with the above values. Clerks
of courts were forbidden to issue execution or process on any
judgment in favor of any person until such person should make
oath that he had not violated the above law. No person could
enter a public office without taking the same oath. Foreigners
coming into the colony to trade were required to take the
same oath under penalty of £50. In August, 1751, (Acts
and Laws of Rhode Island 1745-1752, p. 104), probably in accordance
with the act of Parliament already referred to, it
was provided that in all debts which should come due, for
every sixty-four shillings appearing to be due in old tenor,
sixteen shillings in new tenor, and six shillings and
nine pence in the present bills, the debtor should pay as much
in any of the afore-mentioned bills as should at the time be
worth one ounce of silver sterling.
101. 127The expenditure for the year ending June, 1718, was
£818-3s.-3-3/4d. The more important items were as follows:
Public buildings (court house and jail)
£206-0-0
Salaries (including £20 for gunner)
180-0-0
Bounties on wolves
62-10-0
Cost of revenue (treasurers' fees)
54-8-4
Agent
66-19-4
Weybosset bridge
30-0-0
The items however vary very much from year to year. The payment
for the wolf bounty is in this year unusually large. In
several years the cost of printing and loaning the paper money
is considerable. In the year 1715, the expenditure for that
purpose was about £300. The growth of the colony necessitated
the erection of colony court houses and jails. Before 1729,
however, there were only two counties, the number being increased
to three in that year, and the buildings required were
of a very primitive kind costing as a rule considerably less
than £1,000. The fort was a considerable item of expense;
it was rebuilt so as to be able to mount sixty guns though
not much more than half that number seem to have been supplied.
Previous to 1739, £6,000 in bills were issued to meet the expenses
of the fort, and, in the case of several of the banks,
the fort is mentioned as one of the purposes to which the interest
is to be devoted. In 1739, the assembly ordered the
erection of a brick colony house at Newport, which from the
treasurer's accounts appears to have cost over £20,000. The
agent remained a considerable source of expense. Among the
papers in the state house at Providence is preserved the itemized
account between the colony and its agent for the period
1715-1746. The amount transmitted to the agent during that
period was £4,562-15-10 sterling and there was a balance
due of £438-15-5. The agent's salary was only £40 per
annum. The principal expense was incurred in opposition to
the "molasses act" which passed parliament in 1733, and in connection
with the boundary dispute with Massachusetts. The
agent also made some purchases of military stores for the
colony. Some of the agent's charges throw an interesting
light on the character of political methods in England at this
time. "To money given Lord Presidents and other Noblemens
Servts. when I waited on them Sundry times about the committees
report x x 6-1-6." Another charge is for a fee given at
the Board of Trade "on the Report for Stores, being in our
favor 21-0-0". In 1720, also the colony sent a special
agent to England at an expense of over £800 in paper money.
As regards salaries, I have found no legislation in regard to
that of the governor subsequent to what has been already mentioned.
(Note 75). The treasury reports show that after 1711,
it was customary to grant £100 a year. He also received gratuities
from time to time, in some instances as large as his
salary. In 1729, he received £200 in recompense for all services
and in 1731, £300. The Colonial Records show that like
grants were made in 1732, 1736, and 1744. Douglass (in his
Summary) writing about 1750, says that the governor's salary
was then £300, and that with perquisites it did not exceed
£1,000. The only explanation of "perquisites" which I have
found is by an act of October, 1732, (Digest 1744, p. 169)
by which the governor is allowed 5s. for each commission signed,
and for taxing Bills of cost 2s. 6d. He also seems to have enjoyed
a share in prizes. About 1715, it became customary to
grant the deputy governor £20 for his year's service. In
1722, his salary was fixed at £30. Like the governor he was
frequently granted a gratuity, sometimes as large in amount as
his salary. In 1736, and 1744, he is allowed £50 and Douglas
states his salary as the same as that of the governor. A
law of 1721, granted the assistants a salary of £10 and the
deputies 6s. a day, the latter to be paid by the towns. By an
act of 1746/7 this law was repealed and these officers remained
without pay. By law of 1729, the treasurer was given
a fixed salary of £100 which was doubled two years later.
Gratuities were sometimes granted for the labor entailed by
paper money. He was required to give bonds in £20,000. No
other officers received a stated salary. The payments made
to them out of the treasury were sometimes comparatively large,
those made to the secretary in some instances being from
£100 to £200.
102. 128The population at the periods named was as follows,
1730, 17,935; 1748, 32,773; 1755, 40,414; 1774, 59,707.
According to the report made by the governor to the Board of
Trade in 1740/1 over one hundred and twenty vessels were owned
by inhabitants of the colony, "all constantly employed in
trade, some on the coast of Africa, others in the neighboring
colonies, many in the West Indies, and a few in Europe." Accompanying
this economic development we find a rapid progress
in wealth as shown in the great increase of comforts and the
introduction of luxuries, and a greater diversification of
industries. Many persons in the middle of the century left
personal estates of from £1,000 to £2,000 in value aside from
all real estate. An excellent and detailed account of this
development may be found in Dorr's Planting and Growth of Providence.
R.I. Hist. Tracts, No. 15.
103. 129These bills were termed "new tenor" in distinction from
the former issues or "old tenor." One shilling of new tenor
was declared equal to four shillings old tenor. Acts and Laws
1744, pp. 226, 230.
104. At the time of this issue an ounce of
silver was declared equal to 6s. 9d. of the new bills, to 16s.
new tenor and 64s. old tenor. Acts and Laws 1745-1752, p.
99.
105. In the case of Bank IX repayment was to be made in five
annual installments, interest to be paid until the last installment
(Ibid 85). To what extent the interest from these loans
was the only source of revenue can be seen from the following
table. The first column states, for the period given, the
average annual amounts received from interest bonds as shown
by the treasury books, and the second column the total receipts
for the same periods, exclusive of money issued to the
treasurer to exchange torn bills. The amounts are all given in
old tenor value.
1716-1728
£1,999
£2,118
1729-1731
3,984
4,082
1732-1733
6,817
6,853
1734
12,000
12,108
1735-1738
10,000
10,249
1739-1741
15,000
15,004
1742-1743
13,200
(1739)
1744
8,200
Direct issues of money and receipts from taxes, loans, &c. render interest money a comparatively unimportant source of revenue after 1739.
1745-1748
14,600
1749-1751
9,000
1752-1754
18,251
1755-1762
11,851
1763
9,841
1764
7,111
1765
4,741
The above sums do not include £2,000 emitted in 1728 for use
on the fort. Portions of the bills emitted to exchange torn
bills seem to have been turned from that purpose to meet ordinary
expenses. In June, 1726, £46,634 were emitted to exchange
£5 and 40s. notes, but only £30,383 seem to have been applied
to that purpose. (See report of 1739, given in Potter's history.)
This seems to be the only important instance.
106. 130These figures are taken from a report made by Governor
Ward to the Board of Trade (R.I. Col. Recs. IV, 8). It is
stated in the same report that the then value of paper money
in silver was 27s. per ounce. The value of sterling silver
is reckoned at 5s. 3d. per ounce. On this basis the sterling
value of the £340,000 would be £77,777, instead of £88,074.
If we estimate the population at 25,000 this would give a nominal
per capita debt of £13 12s. or in sterling £3 2s. or £3
5s., according to the estimate which we adopt, a large amount
in either case. Redemption, it must be remembered however,
was to be accomplished not by taxation by repayment of
loans on the part of the citizens. There is reason to believe
the actual amount outstanding exceeded £340,000. We must
also add about £12,000 (nominal) of bills not loaned but issued
directly from the treasury and redeemable only by taxation.
(See text and succeeding note)
107. The first bank expired in 1728 and repayment by ten annual installments should then have begun. In 1732, £1,066 was
due on the second installment, and none of the third was accounted
for (R.I. Col. Recs. IV, 476). In some instances persons
had neglected altogether to give tenth bonds, as they
were called. In 1741, there were five hundred and forty-nine
suits on bonds and mortgages in six towns in Providence County.
In 1742, one thousand and forty more suits were instituted.
The aggregate amount of the latter being only £3,880, which
would show that the bonds were taken up in small quantities.
(Rider's edition of Potter, p. 56). An examination of the
accounts of the grand committee which had charge of these
banks shows approximately the amounts (old tenor value) outstanding
at the dates given. The second column shows the
amounts legally outstanding:
August, 1749
£ 459,000
£ 420,000
March, 1750/1
426,000
360,000
February, 1753
398,000
302,000
August, 1759
218,000
120,000
August, 1762
129,000
48,000
In these statements bank IX which amounted to £237,000 old
tenor is not included. All loans should have been repaid
in 1767, but a report of May, 1770, shows that £92,615-15-7
was still outstanding. These figures of course do not show
the exact amount of the bank money in circulation, but the
amount of loans unpaid. Between 1770 and 1775, there is
record of £95,144 old tenor burnt.
108. 131There are several points not clear in this report. In
the first place it does not agree with the report of 1739,
which, from a comparison with the yearly treasury reports, I
believe is correct. The present report places the amount of
bills issued to supply the treasury before 1739, at £106,300,
and the amount burnt before that time at £88,329. In the
second place it states the amount of the bills to supply the
treasury, issued between 1739 and 1749, as £206,000 (old tenor
value) whereas the records and treasury reports show £219,600.
If we adopt the report of 1739, to that date, and rely upon
the records and treasury reports after that period we have the
following result.
Bills issued to supply the treasury previous to 1749
£ 336,611
old tenor value.
Burnt during same period
194,429
Outstanding January, 1749/50
142,182
Of which there were in the treasury
24,891
In circulation
117,291
per cap. of population £3 11s.
Sterling Value at 11 to 1
10,663
per cap. of population 6s. 5d.
These bills must be redeemed by taxation. There were also actually
outstanding probably from £430,000-£440,000 of bank
money, of sterling value of about £40,000. Adding these
amounts we should have a nominal per capita debt of £16 15s.
sterling £1 10s. 7d. Douglas in his Summary (p. ) estimates
outstanding bills (old tenor value) of the colonies
in 1745, as follows:
Massachusetts
£2,466,612
Connecticut
281,000
Rhode Island
550,000
New Hampshire
450,000
A committee petitioning the king against further issues in
September, 1750, places the amount outstanding at £525,335.
(R.I. Col. Recs. V, 312)
109. 132In addition to the taxes specifically levied for continental
purposes the state before June, 1779, has paid to the
U. S. out of state taxes £30,000 in accordance with the requisition
of congress made in November, 1777. The £6,000 tax in
May, 1781, was to redeem one sixth of the new continental money
issued by the state. £8,640 of the tax of June, 1783, was appropriated
to pay interest on the United States debt. Of the
tax of June, 1784, one fourth was to be paid in United States
interest certificates, and £12,147-6-4 was appropriated
to meet a requisition of congress of the previous April. The
whole of the tax of June, 1785, was afterwards appropriated to
pay the interest on the national debt. But little coin seems
to have been received, taxes probably being paid in evidences
of debt. Two facts should be remembered. 1. These taxes, particularly
those assessed after the close of the war, were not promptly
paid. 2. The war expenditures of the state itself were
regarded as national expenditures, the accounts between the
state and the central government to be settled in the future.
110. 133Rhode Island bore more than her share of war expenditures
see p.
111. In the volume of acts and Laws published in 1730 (p. 42)
appears a law providing that rates should not be applied to
any other purpose than that for which they were levied. Several
special enactments to this effect had been passed during
the previous period.
112. Volume of Acts and Laws, 1744, p. 219. Peddling from
house to house had at first been subjected to a tax and finally
forbidden altogether in 1728. A law of 1750, made it lawful
for the assessors in any town, on notice from two freeholders,
to enquire into the quantity of European goods sold by Foreign
traders, and assess them "at their Discretion according to the
Largeness of their Trade," for the use of the town. The assessor not complying was discharged from office. This law
stands in the Digest on 1767 (p. 243) except that the limitation
to "European goods" is omitted.
113. 134Volume of Acts & Laws published in 1744, p. 295.
114. The three points to be noticed in this law are: 1. the
assignment of fixed and uniform values to the more important
kinds of personal property; 2. the evidence of the beginning
of the development of intangible species of personal property;
3. the use of the tax machinery to encourage the growth of
mercantile pursuits.
115. The Digest of Laws published in 1767, contains no mention
of the poll tax, but, as has been said, its assessment was
usual. In the case of some taxes assessed before 1767, no poll
tax was mentioned, and in some cases when mentioned the amount
was not specified. It is probable however that the poll tax
had become an established part of the town assessment. The
limit of age varied in the earlier acts but finally settled
as above stated. The only exemptions were in the case of settled
ministers of the gospel, except during the Revolution
when the exemption was extended to officers and men in the
regular army or naval service. In the tax act of February,
1780, the assessors were empowered "to consider the circumstances
of the Poor, in their respective Towns, and exempt
from the poll tax such as they think unable to pay the same."
This provision was re-enacted in every tax act until the poll
tax was repealed in 1808. In several of the tax acts during
the Revolutionary period the towns were empowered to fix the
poll tax at such sum as they should see fit.
119. They first appear enumerated among the regular town officers
in the Digest published in 1767. As a matter of fact
they seem to have come into existence some years earlier.
121. Real Estate in Rhode Island enjoyed peculiar privileges
and does not seem to have been included in property, liable to
action by distraint, unless by special enactment. The first
law in regard to lands owned by non-inhabitants, was passed in
February, 1747. (Acts & Laws 1745-1752, p. 47). It merely
recites the difficulty of collecting taxes on such lands, used
only to grow grass, hay, or corn, which was carried away once
a year and authorized distraint on the goods and chattels of
the owner or occupant, corn, hay, or grass, within the same
county where the lands lay. In September, 1757, (Schedules
p. 62) it was provided that unimproved lands owned by non-residents might be sold for non-payment of taxes. In 1767,
the same provision was applied to unimproved lands owned by non-residents,
when not inhabited, and in October, 1782, (Schedules
p. 16) it was extended to all lands owned by non-residents.
An act of May, 1777, authorized the collector to sell the wood
and stone on any unimproved land, the owner whereof resided in
another town and neglected to pay the tax assessed. (Schedules
p. 44) After the evacuation of Rhode Island by the British
there were many persons in the island towns possessed of considerable
real estate but very little personal property. In
case the latter was not sufficient to pay the tax on the real
estate, the collectors were authorized to sell so much of the
real estate as might be necessary to pay the tax. (Schedules
May, 1781, Sec. Sess. p. 61.)
128. Collectors who made distraint were ordered to settle accounts with the town treasurers once a month (Dec. 1781). Debts
due from Great Britain which do not seem to have been taxed
during the war were declared subject to taxation (June, 1784). One of
the dangers of an unsound financial system is shown in the
order forbidding collectors to pay to the general treasurers
taxes, collected by them, in orders on the state treasury, purchased
by the collectors for a sum below their face value.
(May, 1785). To avoid careless methods of accounting collectors
were ordered, if required, to lay before the town treasurer
once in fourteen days a clear statement of the taxes committed
to them to collect, showing that taxes had already been
paid. (June, 1788)
130. I have been able to find no returns under this act, nor
any further mention of the act itself. It does not appear in
the volumes of Acts and Laws published in 1730, and subsequently.
CURRICULUM VITAE.
138
Henry Brayton Gardner was born in Providence, Rhode Island
in 1863. He fitted for college at Mowry and Gregg's English
and Classical School, Providence, Rhode Island. He entered Brown
University 1880, and was graduated with the degree of A.B. in
1884. He entered the Johns Hopkins University as a graduate student
in the Department of History and Political Science, in 1884;
and remained there until 1888, holding the position of Fellow in
History during a portion of the year 1887. Since 1888, he has
held the position of Instructor in Political Economy in Brown University.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.
Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed.
