om duties and fees on imports,
excise taxes on spirits, wines, tobacco and sugar, general, mining
taxes and export duties on minerals (except silver), export duties on
rubber and coca, taxes on the profits of stock companies, fees for
licences and patents, stamp taxes, and postal and telegraph revenues.
Nominally, the import duties are moderate, so much so that Bolivia is
sometimes called a "free-trade country," but this is a misnomer, for in
addition to the schedule rates of 10 to 40% _ad valorem_ on imports,
there are a consular fee of 1-1/2% for the registration of invoices
exceeding 200 bolivianos, a consumption tax of 10 centavos per quintal
(46 kilogrammes), fees for viseing certificates to accompany merchandise
in transit, special "octroi" taxes on certain kinds of merchandise
controlled by monopolies (spirits, tobacco, &c.), and the import and
consumption taxes levied by the departments and municipalities. The
expenditures are chiefly for official salaries, subsidies, public works,
church and mission support, justice, public instruction, military
expenses, and interest on the public debt. The appropriations for 1905
were as follows: war, 2,081,119 bolivianos; finance and industry,
1,462,259; government and fomento, 2,021,428; justice and public
instruction, 1,878,941.

The acknowledged public debt of the country is comparatively small. At
the close of the war with Chile there was an indemnity debt due to
citizens of that republic of 6,550,830 bolivianos, which had been nearly
liquidated in 1904 when Chile took over the unpaid balance. This was
Bolivia's only foreign debt. In 1905 her internal debt, including
1,998,500 bolivianos of treasury bills, amounted to 6,243,270 bolivianos
(L546,286). The government in 1903 authorized the issue of treasury
notes for the department of Beni and the National Territory to the
amount of one million bolivianos (L87,500), for the redemption of which
10% of the customs receipts of the two districts is set apart. The paper
currency of the republic consists of bank-notes issued by four private
banks, and is therefore no part of the public debt. The amount in
circulation on the 30th of June 1903 was officially estimated at
9,144,254 bolivianos (L800,122), issued on a par with silver. The
coinage of the country is of silver, nickel and copper. The silver coins
are of the denominations of 1 boliviano, or 100 centavos, 50, 20, 10 and
5 centavos, and the issue of these coins from the Po