80 AUSTRIA AXD HUNGARY - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IX GENERAL 



man who pled his unfitness to V>ear arms but only in return for the 

 payment of this tax. 



The male ^lusulman population was called to arms three times at dif- 

 ferent periods. In the case of each summons the tax payable for military 

 exemption corresponded to 50 Turkish pounds (i). As regards the non-Ma- 

 hometan population the tax fell on groups of persons in a single locality 

 and not on individuals. Each group of a hundred males of a given villa ge 

 had to pay 50 Turkish pounds, which sum was afterwards divided among 

 the indi\'iduals composing such a gfoup in accordance with the wealth each 

 possessed. Priests and males under fifteen or over sevent^'-five years old 

 were exempt from all military taxes. 



§ 2. Agrarian taxes after the occupation nr Austria 



AND HUNGARY. 



The Austrian and Hungarian government, immediateh* after the occu- 

 pation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, proposed to solve the agrarian proljlem 

 as well as possible, and placed therefore at the head of an economic pro- 

 gramme the reform of taxation and the redemption of the land in the 

 interests of the kineti. 



With this aim the opportune work of forming a cadaster was undertak- 

 en without delay ; but the nomination of Kalaj as governor of Austria and 

 Hungary caused both the schemes for the reform of taxation and the solu- 

 tion of the problems relative to the redemption of land from ancient feu- 

 dal bonds to be shelved, because they were contrary to the principles on 

 which the new governor's economic policy was founded. 



The fundamental basis of this policj- was the maintenance at all costs 

 of internal peace, in homage to which principle Kalaj renounced all projects 

 of reform, however necessary they might be to the country's economic pro- 

 gress. He feared that he might come up against ancient cu.stoins, disturb 

 local interests, and thus occasion internal disorder, and he was convinced 

 that taxation could not be reformed without arousing discontent among 

 the whole population : thus during the time of his administration he adher- 

 ed to Canard's theory- that any tax in existence in a given country is good 

 for the sole reason that it has become intermixed with local customs and 

 the local relations connecting the interests of individuals ; and therefore 

 that an}' new tax is — as a matter of logical sequence — bad because of the 

 sole fact of its novelty. Accepting this theorj' as a maxim Kalaj did not 

 nevertheless absolutely renounce all reformation but had recourse to half 

 measures which could not produce anj^ really noteworthy advantage. He 

 excluded all that could represent a truly radical reform of ta:fation and con- 

 tented himself with retouches which did little to relieve the ancient system 

 in force in the country. 



(i) Turkish pound = 18.22725 at par. 



