PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 581 



prompted Augustus to incorporate these new features of taxation 

 in the Roman governmental policy, and suggests a desire to re- 

 lieve the provinces from their burden of tribute, or to effect the 

 impoverishment of the senate or the "equestrian" (knights) 

 order. A more modern and probably a more correct view is, that 

 Augustus recognized that, as Rome possessed all the known 

 world that she considered worth possessing, the profitable results 

 of further conquests, and the drain of accumulated wealth from 

 subjugated nations, had practically come to an end ; that her 

 army henceforth existed mainly for maintaining the integrity of 

 the empire, or for defense ; and that for its support, in default 

 of opportunities to plunder, an extensive and rigorous system of 

 taxation had become necessary. 



Under the system of taxation established by Augustus and ex- 

 tended by his successors, most of the taxes known to modern 

 times were anticipated by the Romans. Apart from the taxes on 

 land, they had export and import taxes ; tolls for passage over 

 bridges ; a tax upon salt ; a tax in kind upon corn (wheat), 

 barley, wine, oil, meat, and wood ; a tax upon the value of manu- 

 mitted slaves ; on sales ; and a capitation or poll tax. Of other 

 notable and peculiar Roman taxes was one on the wages of pros- 

 titutes ; and apart from his wars with the Jews and the building 

 of the Colosseum, the Roman Emperor Vespasian is best known 

 in history as the originator of a tax on urinals. 



Excepting possibly the land tax, there does not appear to have 

 been any general and uniform system of taxation for the whole 

 empire. The taxes on imports and exports were not uniform, 

 and there were separate customs districts, each with a tariff of its 

 own, and some with special immunities. Under the reign of 

 Augustus and his successors, duties varying from an eighth to 

 the fortieth part of the value of the commodity were imposed at 

 Rome on every kind of merchandise, " which through a thousand 

 channels flowed to the great center of opulence and luxury ; and 

 in whatsoever manner the law was expressed, it was the Roman 

 purchaser and not the provincial merchant that paid the tax." * 



A general tax (characterized by Gibbon as an excise), and 

 seldom exceeding one per cent was also exacted at Rome on 

 whatever " was sold in the market place, or by public auction, 

 from the most considerable purchase of land and houses to those 

 minute objects which can only derive a value from their infinite 

 multitude and daily consumption." As exports were subject to 

 Roman taxation as well as imports, and as the average rates im- 

 posed in both cases were probably low, these forms of taxation 

 appear to have been in the nature of a payment for the privilege 



* Gibbon, vol. i, p. 190, who in turn cites Tacitus, Annals, vol. xiii, p. 31, as authority. 



