—How much would you have paid outside the city gates?
—Fifty centimes.
—Why this difference?
—Ask the octroi[14] which added ten sous to it.
—Who established the octroi?
—The municipality of Paris, in order to pave and light the streets.
—This is, then, an import duty. But if the neighboring country districts had established this octroi for their profit, what would happen?
—I should none the less pay a franc for wine worth only fifty centimes, and the other fifty centimes would pave and light Montmartre and the Batignolles.
—So that really it is the consumer who pays the tax?
—There is no doubt of that.