1 6 History of the English Landed Interest. 



the same principles througliout the long domination of the 

 Romans. 



It is probable that in Britain, as in other half-civilised com- 

 munities, there was no very elaborate fiscal organisation. The 

 country indeed did not become a Roman province until a.d. 61 ; 

 and it was the attempt to enforce the taxation consequent on 

 this operation that precipitated a rebellion that had been long 

 brewing. 



The tribute, in whatever form it existed, would be roughly 

 assessed according to the expenses of administration, under the 

 same principles as the Frumentum or corn for the army of 

 occupation was determined by the needs of the troops. ^ An 

 attempt was probably made to collect such taxes direct from 

 the individual native ; but it seems to have failed, and the task 

 would then be relegated to the hands of local chiefs. "What- 

 ever taxation was found most suitable to the localit}", such as 

 the portoria and indirect charges for the commercially inclined 

 Belgse, and the scriptura for the pastoral communities of the 

 interior, would have been assessed according to the census of 

 the imperial representative ; but some form of tax on personal 

 property would have been roughly estimated at an approximate 

 total for the fierce hill tribes of the West. 



All such dues would then be levied by the procurator fisci 

 and his clerks, the servi and liberti, but collected by the native 

 magistrates. However, as we have already said, the bulk of 

 the British soil was waste taxable by the scriptura system ; 

 and wherever that system prevailed there would be a resusci- 

 tation of the old Ager Publicus much as it existed in the carl}- 

 days when Rome was but a hill fort on the Tiber. Moreover, 

 when the imperial domination of Britain had ceased, and the 

 last of the Civil Service officers of the Empire had turned his 

 back on these shores, the Ager Publicus, without even its 

 agistment charges, was for practical purposes absolutely iden- 

 tical with the people's waste of the tribal Romans, as well as 

 with the Folcland of the Anglo-Saxons. 



It is so important for our purpose to establish a point like 

 this, which, be it remembered, advances the idea of a Folcland 

 ' Tacitus, Agricola, 19. 



