Prince Edward Island Revenue and Expenditure, 1864

Incredible! By far, the majority of the taxation was impost duty (i.e. customs tariff), and almost all the expenditures are the kinds of thing I’d consider the proper role of government: roads, lighthouses, public lands and buildings, government and court offices. Not an economic development program or defined-benefit pension or sustainable energy initiative among them, though one does wonder about the money for the Royal Agricultural Society.

I note with some discouragement that the public debt was equal to a year’s revenue even then, but also that they recorded a surplus equal to nearly 13% of that debt, in a single year.

And they did this with a population of around 90,000.

Finally, something from 1864 worth restoring.