Vexatious survivals of medievalism in the form of
internal tolls and tariffs collected by private persons
aiid corporations were swept away in the county of
Lifark in 1796. All duties of this kind were henceforth
collected at the borders in the form of a moderate
protective tariff. The state supplanted these privi-
leged tax collectors in the care of roads and canals.
Stein pushed without cessation the work of bettering
th<^'Buhr as a waterway and the construction of good
roads out of its narrow valleys, for upon the excellence
of these communications depended the facility of his
districts in the importing of raw materials and the ex-
porting of manufactured products. With character-
istic thoroughness he visited southern France to in-
spect canals there in order that the project he had in
charge might be done in the best manner. In his auto-
biography he cites with pride the waterways he im-
proved and the roads he built — twenty German miles of
. the latter in the county of Mark within four years.
