76 AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL 



individuals. The price of such grant, paid to the State in exchange for the 

 enjoyment of a right of usufruct, should, as the Koran conceived it, repre- 

 sent a definite acknowledgement on the part of the occupiers of the State's 

 sovereign right in the soil. This tribute transformed itself gradually into 

 the tithe. 



In the first 3'ears of the Turkish dominion the tithe did not fall equallj^ 

 on all usufructories, who might be either Mahometans or Serbs converted 

 to the religion of Islam. The right of the former to the usufruct of the land 

 derived from the ser\nces they had rendered, themselves or in the person 

 of their ancestors, to the State, as warriors or administrative officials, and 

 thej' were merely obliged to pa^' to the Treasury.' the tenth part of the gross 

 value of the products of the soil. As regards the second class of taxed 

 persons — the Serbs who because they had been converted to Islamism had 

 been able to preserve their position as usiifructories of the soil — they were 

 obliged to pay to the State a tax greater than the tenth, representing 20 per 

 cent., 30 per cent, and even 50 per cent, of the gross value of their products. 

 This difference in the value of the tithe — according to whether it were lev- 

 ied from usufructories who were Mussulmans by race or from Serbs con- 

 verted to the Mussulman religion — tended to be reduced with the passage 

 of time so that at the time of the Austrian and Hungarian occupation it 

 had entirely disappeared ; and all the usufructories, without distinction of 

 race or religion, were in fact obliged to pay a tithe corresponding to 12 14 

 per cent, of the gross value of the products of the soil. 



It should be noted that this tribute did not alwa3^s go directly to fill 

 the coffers of the State. In the early period of Turkish occupation the 

 tithe was "levied by the militan,^ authorities whom it placed in a position 

 to meet the expenses incurred for the maintenance of the army they com- 

 manded. Sometimes on the other hand the right to le\-A' the tithe was 

 granted to the so-called Vaconfs (the property of the churches and religious 

 foundations) ; but such a privilege tended gradually to die out, until at 

 the time of the Austrian and Hungarian occupation the number of the Va- 

 coufs which still enjo^^ed in Bosnia and Herzegovina the right of lex'ying the 

 tithe in place of the State was small. 



Having thus generally explained the tithe and the right of levying it 

 we will note more particularly the variations which its value has undergone. 

 Until 1839 it was assessed at the rate of 10 14 P^^ cent, of the gross value 

 of the products of the soil ; after this year it was increased, and in 1878 

 it rejjresented 12 ^4 P^^ cent, of that value. The tax so augmented was 

 distributed as follows : 10 y, per cent, represented the tithe properly so- 

 called, I per cent, was given to popular education, 14 P^^ cent, to the Ziraf 

 bank, and the remaining ^/^ per cent, to armaments. 



The tithe was paid in kind, because the natural economy of the country 

 always made difficult an}' attempt on the part of the Turkish governiiient 

 to raise such a tax in money. 



In the earh' period of the Mussulman occupation and as long as there 

 w as a state of war in the country- the Turkish government found it conve- 

 nient to levy the tithe directly, the goods thus obtained being destined for 



