PRESENTS. 9 



told that &quot; some of these were paid annually, others every 

 six months, and others every eighty days.&quot; And further of 

 the gifts made at festivals by some &quot; in token of their 

 submission/ Toribio says &quot; In this way it seems manifest 

 that the chiefs, the merchants, and the landed proprietors, 

 were not obliged to pay taxes, but did so voluntarily.&quot; 



A like transition is traceable in early European history. 

 Among the sources of revenue of the Merovingian kings, 

 Waitz enumerates the freewill gifts of the people on various 

 occasions, besides the yearly presents made originally at the 

 March gatherings. And then, speaking of these yearly 

 presents in the Carolingian period, the same writer says 

 they had long lost their voluntary character, and are even 

 described as a tax by Hincmar. They included horses, gold, 

 silver, and jewels, and (from nunneries) garments, and 

 requisitions for the royal palaces; and he adds that these 

 dues, or trib uta, were all of a more or less private character : 

 though compulsory they had not yet become taxes in the 

 literal sense. So, too, with the things presented to minor 

 rulers by their feudal dependants. &quot; The dona, after hav 

 ing been, as the name sufficiently indicates, voluntary gifts, 

 were in the twelfth century become territorial dues received 

 by the lords.&quot; 



In proportion as values became more definite and pay 

 ments in coin easier, commutation resulted. Instance, 

 in the Carolingian period, &quot; the so-called mferenda a due 

 originally paid in cattle, now in money; &quot; instance the 

 oublies, consisting of bread &quot; presented on certain days by 

 vassals to their lords,&quot; which &quot; were often replaced by a 

 small annual due in money; &quot; instance, in our own history, 

 the giving of money instead of goods by towns to a king 

 and his suite making a progress through them. The evi 

 dence may fitly be closed with the following passage 

 from Stubbs : 



&quot; The ordinary revenue of the English king had been derived 

 solely from the royal estates and the produce of what had been the 



