Early in 1863 the Confederate Government presented to the country
a program in which the main features were three. Of these the two
which did not rouse immediate hostility in the party of the
Examiner and the Mercury were the Impressment Act of March, 1863
(amended by successive acts), and the act known as the Tax in
Kind, which was approved the following month. Though the
Impressment Act subsequently made vast trouble for the
Government, at the time of its passage its beneficial effects
were not denied. To it was attributed by the Richmond Whig the
rapid fall of prices in April, 1863. Corn went down at Richmond
from $12 and $10 a bushel to $4.20, and flour dropped in North
Carolina from $45 a barrel to $25. Under this act commissioners
were appointed in each State jointly by the Confederate President
and the Governor with the duty of fixing prices for government
transactions and of publishing every two months an official
schedule of the prices to be paid by the Government for the
supplies which it impressed.

The new Tax Act attempted to provide revenues which should not be
paid in depreciated currency. With no bullion to speak of, the
Confederate Congress could not establish a circulating medium
with even an approximation to constant value. Realizing this
situation, Memminger had advised falling back on the ancient
system of tithes and the support of the Government by direct
contributions of produce. After licensing a great number of
occupations and laying a property tax and an income tax, the new
law demanded a tenth of the produce of all farmers. On this law
the Mercury pronounced a benediction in an editorial on The Fall
of Prices, which it attributed to "the healthy influence of the
tax bill which has just become law."*