50 RATES AND TAXES 



on the ground of custom in the widest sense. 



And again, we may take the national taxes 

 first. 



Taxes on land, in the modern sense of the 

 term to, that is as distinguished from any 

 revenues in the nature of a rent charge, 

 existed from very early times. The famous 

 Dane-geld, levied in Saxon times ostensibly 

 to repel the Danes, was a land tax, and 

 there were other taxes of a similar character 

 in Anglo-Norman times. It may be said 

 that, before personal property existed to any 

 appreciable extent in England, taxes were 

 charged on land. Land taxes are as old as 

 the cultivation of land. But the point is 

 that as soon as personal property became 

 of sufficient importance to attract the atten- 

 tion of the tax-gatherer, all these land taxes 

 were merged in a general system of taxation, 

 which applied equally to movables. The 

 standing example is the Saladin tithe in 



