584 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Emperor Diocletian they became more and more destructive of 

 industry, and fell with special weight upon agriculture. Accord- 

 ing to Sir James Stephen, the land tax in Gaul rose to " the almost 

 incredible amount of one third of the net produce of the land " ; 

 but what is more singular and incredible, the present tax on the 

 peasant agriculturist of Italy is equivalent to the value of an 

 even larger share of his product. 



The provincial taxes which gave rise, however, to the greatest 

 discontent were the poll tax and a tax upon funerals. These 

 were easy to collect, and consequently in favor with the Roman 

 tax-gatherers ; but being levied at fixed and undiscriminating rates, 

 pressed with great and unequal severity upon the poor. The last- 

 mentioned tax i. e., upon funerals, which required payment be- 

 fore the burial of the dead was said to have formed one of the 

 principal causes of the revolt of the Iceni (Britons), under their 

 famous warrior. Queen Boadicea. The decree mentioned in St. 

 Luke's Gospel, of Csesar Augustus, that all the world should be 

 taxed, and in pursuance of which " every one went into his own 

 city,'' unquestionably referred to a poll-tax assessment, and to its 

 required payment in person by every adult at the Roman tax-col- 

 lector's office nearest to an established center of Roman authority. 



In the province of Gaul the annual tribute exacted from every 

 head under the reign of Constantine was reported to have been 

 twenty-five pieces of gold. But the possibility of the payment of 

 such a high capitation tax has been explained by the circum- 

 stance that in all the provinces of the Roman world the ma- 

 jority of the people were slaves, or peasants whose condition was 

 little different from slavery ; and that the rolls of tribute em- 

 braced only the names of citizens who possessed the means of an 

 honorable or at least of a decent subsistence. 



The whole record of Roman experience in respect to revenue 

 collection or taxation before the decadence of the empire, alike in 

 the city of Rome and in her provinces, is, however, of no value, 

 save from an historical point of view. It does not appear, as 

 before noted, to have been based upon any well-devised and 

 harmonious fiscal system, or to have had any influence whatever 

 in originating or developing one ; for, unlike other Roman cus- 

 toms and institutions, it everywhere fell into disuse when the 

 authority of Rome was withdrawn. In one feature alone was 

 Rome consistent in her views and harmonious in her practice in 

 respect to taxation : she always levied taxes for the purpose of 

 getting money into the public treasury and for no ulterior reason. 

 The nearest approach on the part of the Romans to a recognition 

 of the policy of stimulating a branch of industry through the in- 

 strumentality of bounties or subsidies seems to have occurred 

 in connection with the distribution of wheat gratuitously, or at 



