170 TRIBUTE COLLECTED CHAP. vn. 



back a portion of them in return for those luxu- 

 ries and necessaries which the wants of an ex- 

 tended and populous metropolis required. The 

 provinces were thus enabled to continue their 

 contributions to the \fealth and voluptuousness 

 of the imperial city, though with gradually dimi- 

 nishing force, during the reigns of the several 

 monarchs who succeeded to the throne of Au- 

 gustus. 



The tributes from the several provinces have 

 been estimated by Gibbon to amount to a sum 

 equivalent to between fifteen and twenty mil- 

 lions of our money, which, though a vast amount, 

 was unequal to the expenditure of the imperial 

 government, which required the imposition of 

 taxes of various descriptions. These may be 

 classed under a name familiar to us by the title 

 of customs and excise, the first of which varied 

 from ten to twelve and a half per cent, on the 

 various goods imported either by land or sea 

 from foreign countries. The excise was an 

 impost on all sales of property made either by 

 auction or in public markets, comprehending the 

 largest sales of houses and estates, as well as 

 those which derive a value only from their 

 infinite variety and their daily consumption. 

 Though the tax was no more than one in the 

 hundred on the amount of the sales, it must have 

 produced a vast sum, notwithstanding the ex- 

 pense and difficulty of the collection, and though 



