A SNAKE MERCHANT.
"We have just visited Monkey Joe's establishment, which is devoted to the sale of monkeys, parrots, snakes, and other Amazonian live-stock. We made no purchases, in spite of the tempting offers at low prices, as we have found one monkey quite as much as we wish to carry in our travels. Outside of the shop a man was standing with a barrel by his side; when we left the place he followed us a short distance and emptied his barrel on the ground. He was a snake-merchant, with a choice selection of rat-killers that he vainly urged us to buy. We left him and his wares; as he was perfectly at home among the wriggling serpents, and had no fear of them, he was unable to understand why we departed so suddenly.
"F. and F."
Before leaving Para our friends had an experience at the custom-house which was the reverse of pleasing. They had bought some curiosities they wished to send to New York; the formalities of the tariff required them to pay an export duty of seventeen per cent. on the cost of the goods at Para prices, and they learned that on some articles the duties were much larger. This is particularly the case with fine cabinet woods, which are abundant in Brazil, but are very little in demand for shipment to foreign countries, in consequence of the high export tariff.
"Foreign trade can never be prosperous in Brazil," said Dr. Bronson, "until these export duties are removed. In addition to the custom-house tariff at Para, there is a duty on goods carried from one province to another, so that all articles of Brazilian manufacture or production are heavily burdened before they get out of the country. Brazil may become enlightened one of these days, and adopt the practices of other nations in this respect, but for the present she ranks with Turkey and other semi-barbarous countries in keeping a burden upon her home industries."
Frank asked about the import duties on foreign goods.
"They are from five to eighty per cent. on the valuation," replied the Doctor, "and a general average of the duties on importations is about forty per cent. They vary according to the caprice of the official through whose hands the articles may pass, so that one importer may pay twice as much as another on the same kind of goods. Bribery is said to be practised with very little effort at concealment, and an importer may be highly favored in his business by an 'arrangement' with an officer. As long as this state of things continues there will be no great increase in business.
"The Brazilian plan of collecting the revenues is full of absurdities. For example, shoes pay according to the length of the sole, and ready-made clothing is taxed by its weight. The people who came here from the United States to settle in Brazil were required to pay enormous duties on their wagons, farming implements, and other personal property, and in some cases the duties amounted to more than the original cost of the articles they brought. Many of them had invested all their means in farming implements, and found on arrival that they could not remove their property from the custom-house until every cent of the heavy duty had been paid. This was one cause of the discouragements of the emigrants at the beginning, and has deterred others from coming."