REVENUE. 563 



cally illustrated by a statement concerning the Dukes of 

 Normandy in the 12th century. They profited by escheats 

 (lands reverting to the monarch in default of posterity of the 

 first baron) ; by guardianships and reliefs ; by seizure of the 

 property of deceased prelates, usurers, excommunicated per 

 sons, suicides, and certain criminals; and by treasure-trove. 

 They were paid for conceded privileges; and for confirmations 

 of previous concessions. They received bribes when desired 

 to do justice ; and were paid fines by those who wished to be 

 maintained in possession of property, or to get liberty to 

 exercise certain rights. In England, under the Norman 

 kings, there were such other sources of revenue as composi 

 tions paid by heirs before taking possession ; sales of ward 

 ships ; sales to male heirs of rights to choose their wives ; 

 sales of charters to towns, and subsequent re-sales of such 

 charters ; sales of permissions to trade ; and there was also 

 what was called &quot; moneyage &quot; a shilling paid every three 

 years by each hearth to induce the king not to debase the 

 coinage. Advantage was taken of every favourable oppor 

 tunity for making and enforcing a demand ; as we see in such 

 facts as that it was customary to mulct a discharged official, 

 and that Eichard I. &quot; compelled his father s servants to re 

 purchase their offices.&quot; 



Showing us, as such illustrations do, that these arbitrary 

 seizures and exactions are numerous and heavy in proportion 

 as the power of the ruler is little restrained, the implication is 

 that they reach their extreme where the social organization is 

 typically militant. Evidence that this is so, was given in 

 443 ; and in the next chapter, under another head, we shall 

 meet with more of it. 



545. While, in the ways named in the foregoing sections, 

 there arise direct taxes, there simultaneously arise, and 

 insensibly diverge, the taxes eventually distinguished as 

 indirect. These begin as demands made on those who have 

 got considerable quantities of commodities exposed in transit, 

 95 



