THE WEALTH OF NATIONS.

855

lowed to compound for the gabelle or salt-tax. Others areexempted from it altogether. Some provinces are exemptedfrom the exclusive sale of tobacco, which the fanners-generalenjoy through the greater part of the kingdom. The aids,which correspond to the excise in England, are very differ-ent in different provinces. Some provinces are exemptedfrom them, and pay a composition or ecjuivalent. In thosein which they take place and are in farm, there are manylocal duties which do not extend beyond a particular townor district. The Traites which correspond to our customs,divide the kingdom into three great parts; first, the provincessubject to the tariff of 1GG4, which are called the provincesof the live great farms, and under which are comprehendedPicardy, Normandy , aud the greater part of the interior pro-vinces of the kingdom; secondly, the provinces subject tothe tarif of 1GG7, which are called the provinces reckonedforeign, and under which are comprehended the greater partof the frontier provinces; and, thirdly, those provinces whichare said to be treated as foreign, or which, because they areallowed a lree commerce with foreign countries, are in theircommerce with the other provinces of France subjected to thesame duties as other foreign countries. These are Alsace ,the three bishopricks of Metz, Toul , and Verdun , and thethree cities of Dunkirk, Bayonne, and Marseilles . Both inthe provinces of the live great farms (called so on account ofan ancient division of the duties of customs into live greatbranches, each of which was originally the subject of a par-ticular farm, though they are now all united into one), and inthose which are said to be reckoned foreign, there are manylocal duties which do not extend beyond a particular townor district. There are some such even in the provinces whichare said to be treated as foreign, particularly in the city ofMarseilles . It is unnecessary to observe how much, both therestraints upon the interior commerce of the country, and thenumber of revenue officers must be multiplied, in order toguard the frontiers of those different provinces and districts,which are subject to such dillerent systems of taxation.

Over and above the general restraints arising from thiscomplicated system of revenue laws, the commecre of wine,after corn perhaps the most important production of France is in the greater part of the provinces subject to particularrestraints, arising from the favour which has been shewn totbe vineyards of particular provinces and districts, above