The reconstruction government is charged with having imposed such heavy taxes that as a result the people were impoverished, industry was checked, and many plantations went to waste. During the decade before the war the law provided that a tax should be annually levied at such a rate as to produce $375,000, provided the rate should not exceed one-twelfth of one per cent.[326] The revenue law of 1866 provided that a tax should be levied at such a rate as to produce $350,000.[327] Owing to the vast destruction of property during the war, this necessitated a higher rate than that before the war. The law of 1867 ordered a levy at such a rate as to raise $500,000.[328] This law, made by the Johnson government, before reconstruction began, was continued by the legislature in the four following years.[329] In 1870 the rate of assessment was two-fifths of one per cent.[330] This rate was much higher than the one prevailing before the war, but this misfortune cannot be charged to reconstruction, since the reconstruction government merely followed the example of the Johnson government. That the reconstruction _régime_ did not do the economic harm often attributed to it is shown by the fact that during that _régime_ the value of land and of all property in the state steadily increased, as appears from the following table: ASSESSED VALUATION. Land. Town and Total City Property. Property. 1868[331] $79,727,584 $40,315,621 $191,235,520 1869[332] 84,577,166 44,368,096 204,481,706 1870[333] 95,600,674 47,922,544 226,119,519 1871[334] 96,857,512 52,159,734 234,492,468 Nevertheless, the reconstruction government spent the public money extravagantly. This fact is shown by a comparison of the expenditures of the state under Bullock's administration and under that of his predecessor. Such a comparison, it is true, has been employed to prove the contrary. Governor Bullock was wont to rebut charges of extravagance by showing that the state spent more under Jenkins' administration than under his, in proportion to the time occupied by each.[335] This was true, as the following figures show:[336] Gross expenditures in 1866 and 1867 $3,223,323.46 Average annual expenditure during these years 1,601,661.73 Gross expenditures from August 11, 1868, to Jan. 1, 1870 2,260,252.15 Gross expenditures in 1870 1,444,816.73 Gross expenditures in 1871 1,476,978.86 Average annual expenditure during this period 1,554,614.32