At various times the Dominican Republic has had disastrous experiences with paper money issued without sufficient guarantees. One service rendered by the Spaniards during their occupation in the sixties was the retirement of large amounts of such paper. The troubles accompanying unsecured paper money had been forgotten when Heureaux in his attempts to raise funds floated an issue of a nominal amount of $3,600,000 in notes, of the Banque Nationale, in addition to a small amount already emitted by the bank. Such demoralization resulted that at one time it took twenty dollars in paper money to purchase one dollar in gold. The national bank notes having been demonetized, various amounts were purchased at auction by the administrations succeeding Heureaux and destroyed, and almost all the remainder has been redeemed at five to one under the 1907 debt settlement. The only paper now seen is American paper money, which circulates at a par with American silver and gold. MUNICIPAL FINANCES Like the national government, the municipalities or communes depend almost entirely upon indirect taxation for their revenues. One of the principal sources of income is the tax on the slaughter of cattle and sale of meat. The communes may further, with the authority of Congress, levy a "consumo" tax, a small duty on the imports and exports of merchants within their jurisdiction, which tax has given rise to much confusion and controversy. Business licenses also form an important fount of revenue. By a law of Congress (soon to be superseded by a decree of the military government) the municipalities are divided into several classes, according to their importance, and the licenses payable by the various kinds of business in the several classes are designated. The national government turns over to the various municipalities a portion of the impost on spirits and grants educational subventions to several municipalities for their primary schools. Minor sources of revenue are taxes on lotteries and raffles, vehicle licenses, amusement permits, cockpits, etc. Two towns, Santo Domingo and Santiago, have municipal lotteries. Under all these taxes a man might own scores of houses and great expanses of land without paying towards the maintenance of the state and municipality more than the poorest peon on his property. The sums collected for municipal purposes in all the communes of the Republic may be calculated at about $600,000 per annum, derived from the following sources: MUNICIPAL RECEIPTS Approximate percentage of entire income