ABSTRACT
A people already groaning under taxation often complains least of that from which it really suffers most; and the net profit upon a State monopoly is an insidious form of taxation which escapes notice even more easily than an indirect tax. Where the State takes over the railway system it takes over what is, generally speaking, to a large extent a natural monopoly; but where it takes over the tobacco trade it creates an artificial monopoly. The favourite argument for an Imperial Postal Service is reproduced on behalf of the tobacco monopoly. The law of leaf tobacco monopoly was enacted in 1896. This law has now been revised and the monopoly has been made more complete. The Japanese Government has also created three State monopolies in its new dependency of Formosa. The government monopoly of the article was expressly established to facilitate the final extinction of the opium habit.
