EVOLUTION AND DEGENERATION OF INSTITUTIONS 91 



ing in Europe, and the most important stages in 

 the evolution of landed property amongst various 

 peoples. 



1. Modifications of similar institutions in the 

 same society. 



The financial organization of European towns 

 and states has undergone very important changes 

 since the middle ages. Taxes and duties have 

 attained a now universal importance, as substitution 

 for the revenue from crown lands, which constituted 

 the principal, if not the only, resources of the 

 sovereigns of the feudal ages. 1 



1 There are three stages in the evolution of financial systems in 

 countries (such as England, for instance) where the question of 

 finance has been most successfully dealt with. 



1. The Feudal System, wherein the king had no separate revenue 



apart from the nation, and wherein the revenue of the 

 sovereign was principally derived from crown land, the 

 cultivation and administration of which was carried on as 

 a source of private income to the king. 



2. The Co-existence of tlie Feudal System and the Modern System, 



viz., the disappearance of personally held land and its 

 attendant institutions, the development of the public pro- 

 perty of the State or Township, and the imposition of 

 duties and taxes. 



3. The Modern System, viz., the complete separation of the 



personal property of the sovereign from the property of 

 the nation, the increasing importance of taxes and duties, 

 and the almost complete disappearance of State and town 

 lands. Industries taken over by the State such as rail- 

 ways, postal and telegraphic arrangements, etc. and by 

 the towns such as gas, water, etc. constitute monopolies, 

 and are no longer subjected to the law of competition which 

 is always active in private business. WAGNER. 





