In 1869 the main quota to the impost was increased by one-tenth, in addition to the extra two-tenths previously imposed in 1866.
It also meant a tax or impost, payable in money.
The policy of protection was further accentuated by raising the impost on corn from 5 to 7 francs per hectolitre (23/4 bushels).
The Chamber, though convinced of the danger of this reform, the perils of which were incisively demonstrated by Sella, voted by an overwhelming majority for an immediate reduction of the impost by onefourth, and its complete abolition within four years.
Notwithstanding this prospective loss of revenue, parliament showed great reluctance to vote any new impost, although hardly a year previously it had sanctioned (3oth June 1879) Depretiss scheme for spending during the next eighteen years 43,200,000 in building 5000 kilometres of railway, an expenditure not wholly justified by the importance of the lines, and useful principally as a source of electoral sops for the constituents of ministerial deputies.
