The legislation of 1846 and the years closely following- has been' given in considerable detail in order that there might be a full understanding of the system of property taxation established at the beginning of statehood. It is surprising how few changes have been made in the system even after more than fifty years of its unsuccessful operation. In describing the legislation the writer is under no delusion that the tax system on the statute books was to the letter the one in operation. The description of the legislation is therefore followed by an account of the property tax in operation.1

1 Laws of 1846, p. 352. Costs were not provided for in the act of 1846, but they were in the act of 1848.

The rate of taxation for state purposes was low and the percentage of assessed value to true value was high during the period 1846-1860. From 1846 to 1850 the rate was twenty cents on the one hundred dollars' valuation; from 1850 to 1858, fifteen cents; and from 1858 to 1861, twelve and one-half cents. The United States Census of 1850 reported that assessed values were 96% of true values, and the census of 1860 gave assessed values as 73% of true values.2

Contemporaneous with the rate of 20 cents, assessed values increased 41%; but between 1849 and 1858, or the period of the rate of 15 cents, the increase in the value of assessed property was 308%, and between 1858 and 1861, the period of the 12 1/2 cents rate, the increase was 60%. A number of circumstances contributed to explain the increase in assessed values. The change in the law in 1850 whereby unrendered lands were assessed through the comptroller's department led to a better assessment of the property of non-residents. The relinquishment to the counties of nine-tenths of the state taxes between 1852 and 1858 reduced the general weight of taxation. The increase was due largely, however, to the growth of population and wealth. Between 1850 and 1860, the white population increased from 154,034 to 421,294, and the number of slaves from 58,161 to 182,566. The cash value of farm lands and buildings increased from $16,550,008 in 1850 to $88,101,320 in 1860, and the value of real and personal property increased from $55,362,-340 to $453,150,753.

1 In a study of the operation of this tax little assistance can be got from the reports of receipts as given by the comptroller or the treasurer. The receipts from all taxes are lumped together in the reports of these officials.

2 The assessed value of property on June 1, 1850, was, according to the United States Census, $51,027,456; the real or true value was $52,740,473; Abstract of Seventh Census. 1850. P. 46. The Compendium of the Seventh Census (p. 190), however, gives the value of the real property in 1850 as $28,149,671, the value of the personal property as $25,414,000, or a total value of $53,563,671, and a true value of $55,362,340. The values given in the Compendium probably are those returned by individuals, while the values given in the Abstract are based on official state records. The assessed value of property in 1850 as given by the state comptroller was $51,814,615, but his figures probably include assessed values of counties which had not been returned at the, time the census was taken.

The assessed value of real estate as ascertained by the census of 1860 was $112,476,013, the assessed value of personal property was $155,316,322. The true value, according to the census officials, was $365,200,614. Eighth Census of the United States. 1860. Vol. Mortality and Miscellaneous Statistics, p. 294. The value of real estate on June 1, 1860, as returned by individuals to the census officials was $191,166,301; the value of personal property was $261,984,452, or a total of $453,150,753. Ibid., p. 319. The assessed value of property in 1860 as reported by the state comptroller was $294,315,639. The difference between the census figure of assessed values and the comptroller's figure was due probably to the difference in time of taking the two official records.

The wealth of the state consisted of those visible, tangible objects which might be expected to be found in a community wholly agricultural. Land, slaves, and livestock made up 95.2 per cent of the total assessments in 1846, and 90.2 per cent in 1860. Loaned money was the chief intangible item and constituted only nine-tenths of one per cent of the total assessment in 1849, and 1.4 per cent in 1859. Money loaned was subject throughout the period to a special tax of 20 cents on the $100, but this was levied not as a property tax, but as a license tax. This was not a hard tax to bear since the interest rate varied from 10% to 20%1 The number of money lenders assessed rose from 255 in 1849 to 3,053 in 1859, and the amount assessed increased from $120,315 to $3,330,038.2 The amount of credits which were assessed is not reported for this period. The absence in official reports and messages and in newspapers of complaint of evasion of taxation by money and credits indicates that their assessment, if a problem, was not acute. Nor was corporation taxation a problem. The general property tax was the only business tax, except the ordinary license taxes upon those engaged in merchandise, liquor, and other occupations. There were no railroads before 1854; there were only stage coaches and steamboats. There was not only no special taxation prescribed for these, but their assessments under the general property tax were not particularized, and so details as to their taxation are not ascertainable. The incorporation of state banks was prohibited by the constitution, and the only banks in the state were private banks and one or two banks which had been chartered by the republic. According to the United States Census of 1860, there was only one bank in Texas, and that was a small one in Galveston.1 Evidently the general property tax and the license tax upon money loaned were thought sufficient for the taxation of banks.

1 Texas Almanac, 1858, pp. 61, 65; ibid., 1859, p. 182. 2Reports of the comptroller, 1849, 1859.