EVOLUTION AND DEGENERATION OF INSTITUTIONS 95 



transformed into private estates, and has been so 

 built over as to become almost unrecognizable. 



(d) In some towns the receipts from land only 

 represent a very small part of the communal revenue, 

 3 per cent, at Eoulers, 0*1 at Saint-Nicolas. 1 



It is thus evident that the evolution of com- 

 munal finance, which has been especially char- 

 acterized by the development of duties and taxes, 

 has been accompanied by the degeneration of the 

 old system of collective property. 



II. Budget of the States of the German Empire. 



The feudal system of finance has left its mark 

 upon Germany, especially in the eighteen subsidiary 

 states where archaic institutions have been best 

 preserved. 2 The principal stages in the progressive 

 evolution of the modern system, and the corre- 

 sponding degeneration of the feudal system may be 

 enumerated as follows : 



1. Mecklembourg- Strelitz still exhibits the primi- 

 tive system in a comparatively little altered 

 form. The Grand Duke is the sole adminis- 

 trator ; the budget is not separated from the 

 civil list; the revenue amounts to an average 



1 Hector Denis, I'lmpdl, pp. 55. Brussels, V e . Monnom, 1889. 



2 Leroy-Beaulieu, TraiU de la science des Finances, 1, 21, and 

 following. 



Adolf Wagner, Lehr-und ffandbuch dcr Politischen Oekonomie ; 

 Finanzwissenschaft. Erster Theil, sees. 214-216. 



