For the purpose of bringing order and efficiency into the collection and disbursement of the public revenues of Santo Domingo, the American government in 1913 urged that it be permitted to designate an American comptroller and financial adviser and the Bordas administration at length consented, but as there was no legal authority for such action and as the appointee was not characterized by unusual ability, the Jimenez administration declined to continue the arrangement. During the present military government and under the efficient direction of the acting comptroller-general, J. H. Edwards, valuable work is being done in revising the accounting system and generally placing the country's finances in order.

All the accounts of the Republic are carried on in American money, which is legal tender and is current in all parts of the country. For about fifty years after the declaration of independence, coins of many countries, principally Mexican silver and Spanish gold, were in circulation, with the rate of exchange constantly fluctuating. In 1890 the Republic joined the Latin convention and in the following year through the then existing Banque Nationale de Saint Domingue issued silver and copper coin to the value of about $200,000. The fall in the value of silver caused depreciation and a few of the silver coins of this issue which are still in circulation are valued at forty cents gold for five francs; the copper coins at a little less. In 1894 the gold standard was adopted and though no actual coinage took place all official financial transactions were thereafter based upon gold values. In 1895 and 1897 President Heureaux issued more silver coins or, rather, coins washed over with silver, to the nominal amount of $2,250,000, but the seigniorage was so enormous that the issue was a case of a government counterfeiting its own money. The rate of exchange fell to five pesos for one dollar gold and this is the rate legalized by the law of June 19, 1905, which made the American gold dollar the standard of the Dominican Republic.

For a while the ordinary smaller business transactions continued to be based on silver values. On a trip to Santo Domingo in 1904 a friend and myself were driven from the wharf to the hotel and the coachman asked for two dollars. It seemed an outrageous charge, but we considered ourselves in the hands of the Philistines, and handed over an American two-dollar bill. "Excuse me until I can get change," said the coachman to our surprise, and ran into the hotel; in a moment he reappeared with a double handful of coins: "Here is your change," he said, "eight dollars." The charge had been only forty cents in gold. At the present time American money is the basis and Dominican silver and copper is regarded merely as fractional currency, one peso Dominican being equivalent to twenty cents American.

At various times the Dominican Republic has had disastrous experiences with paper money issued without sufficient guarantees. One service rendered by the Spaniards during their occupation in the sixties was the retirement of large amounts of such paper. The troubles accompanying unsecured paper money had been forgotten when Heureaux in his attempts to raise funds floated an issue of a nominal amount of $3,600,000 in notes, of the Banque Nationale, in addition to a small amount already emitted by the bank. Such demoralization resulted that at one time it took twenty dollars in paper money to purchase one dollar in gold. The national bank notes having been demonetized, various amounts were purchased at auction by the administrations succeeding Heureaux and destroyed, and almost all the remainder has been redeemed at five to one under the 1907 debt settlement. The only paper now seen is American paper money, which circulates at a par with American silver and gold.

MUNICIPAL FINANCES

Like the national government, the municipalities or communes depend almost entirely upon indirect taxation for their revenues. One of the principal sources of income is the tax on the slaughter of cattle and sale of meat. The communes may further, with the authority of Congress, levy a "consumo" tax, a small duty on the imports and exports of merchants within their jurisdiction, which tax has given rise to much confusion and controversy. Business licenses also form an important fount of revenue. By a law of Congress (soon to be superseded by a decree of the military government) the municipalities are divided into several classes, according to their importance, and the licenses payable by the various kinds of business in the several classes are designated. The national government turns over to the various municipalities a portion of the impost on spirits and grants educational subventions to several municipalities for their primary schools. Minor sources of revenue are taxes on lotteries and raffles, vehicle licenses, amusement permits, cockpits, etc. Two towns, Santo Domingo and Santiago, have municipal lotteries. Under all these taxes a man might own scores of houses and great expanses of land without paying towards the maintenance of the state and municipality more than the poorest peon on his property.

The sums collected for municipal purposes in all the communes of the Republic may be calculated at about $600,000 per annum, derived from the following sources:

MUNICIPAL RECEIPTS

Approximate percentage
of entire income

Municipal charges on imports and exports………….. 17.7
Business licenses………………………………. 15.3
Markets……………………………………….. 10.8
Lottery tax……………………………………. 10.5
Slaughter houses and meat transportation………….. 9.2
Alcohols………………………………………. 7.3
Excises (alcabala)……………………………… 5.
Amusement permits………………………………. 3.5
Public register………………………………… 3.5
Lotteries……………………………………… 2.5
Lighting in private houses………………………. 2.3
Ferryboats and bridges………………………….. 3.1
Municipal property and rentals…………………… 1.8
Miscellaneous………………………………….. 8.5
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100.