NATIONAL TAXES 57 



be more or less than the shilling according 

 to the sum assessed and the wealth of the 

 district. When the rate was raised, say 

 from is. to 45., it meant that the sum 

 to be got from each district was increased 

 fourfold. It did not mean that the State 

 obtained a tax from all lands of 45. in 

 the on the actual rental. 



We have here a repetition of mediaeval 

 experience, where the fifteenths and tenths, 

 and later the subsidies, began as propor- 

 tional income or property taxes, but soon 

 became fixed sums due from localities, and 

 raised by them by local rates. The annual 

 land tax under William III. was originally 

 a proportional property tax, and it came 

 to be a fixed sum per shilling of the 

 nominal rate imposed. A shilling rate 

 meant half a million and a 45. rate 

 meant two million in round numbers 

 (the precise figures were a little less). As 



