A tax which combines a maximum of irritation with a minimum of profit is one which is levied on the business books of persons engaged in commerce. Every page of the ledger, cash book, press copy book, &c., has to be officially stamped at a charge of so much per page: the total charge for a complete set of commercial books sometimes amounting to 500 pesetas (£20), and not only so, but the Government--presumably in order to get more out of the tax--prescribes the method by which the merchant must keep his books. I was told by the manager of a large foreign industrial concern that he has to employ twice as many clerks as he needs, solely because the authorities insist on a cumbrous and obsolete system of book-keeping. The law enacts that pious foundations which offer their manufactures for public sale are liable to taxation. It is currently said that this obligation is evaded. Whether this is the case or not I cannot say from personal knowledge, but certainly any visitor can purchase sweets or needlework made in the convents. Indeed, some of them are celebrated for their confectionery, which is always sold a trifle under the cost of similar goods made by a lay tradesman. If the taxes were fairly and honestly collected, their amount could be materially reduced. But as a matter of fact many are not collected at all from the persons most able to pay. The tax-collector is usually willing, for a consideration, to play the part of the unjust steward, and take less than the proper amount. It is sometimes said that only fools and foreigners pay the taxes, and cases have occurred in my own knowledge where bribery in the proper quarter has effected a substantial reduction in the amount accepted. Every resident in Spain knows of such instances: the thing is notorious, is talked of quite openly, and is done with hardly any attempt at concealment. It is impossible to conjecture what proportion of the total taxes due is thus informally remitted, but it must be something considerable. Complaints about evasions of taxation frequently appear in the papers: thus it was stated as a fact in the _Liberal_ in February, 1910, that about 45 per cent, of those liable for _Contribution industrial_ evade payment. In the same newspaper, in the same month, appeared a long statement, signed by the officials of the Guild of Cab Proprietors in one of the large towns, accusing certain owners of livery stables, who let smart carriages for hire, of defrauding the municipality of some 50,000 pesetas (about £2,000) a year by falsifying the declarations on which they take out their licences, and no attempt was made to show that the accusation was unfounded. Complaints about evasion of taxation by large landowners also are of frequent occurrence.