The French Fee System. 
83 
amount as it exists in the English legislation at present. 
Changes are of course in progress even now, but they are so 
slow as to be scarcely noticeable. 
CHAPTER IV. 
THE FRENCH FEE SYSTEM. 
The origin and development of the fee system of France re¬ 
quires special attention and study. In no other place has this 
source of public income been so much exploited and utilized as 
here. In no other state does it play so important a role in the 
system of finance, and in no other country has the “art of taxa¬ 
tion,” by means of numerous and heavy charges, originally in 
the nature of fees, been so well developed. 
A. DROITS D’ENREGISTREMENT. 
The charges comprehended under the term registration fees, 
are undoubtedly the most numerous and important category in 
the French fee-system. In fact they may in a certain sense be 
looked upon as a distinctive product of the French civilization. 
Historically these charges are said to date back to the Greeks 
and Romans, who required certain documents, official acts, and 
the like to be filed with, or preserved by, some public officer. 1 
The book or place where these records were kept was called in 
Latin “ Regesta, ” from which we have the word register. At 
first these registration charges represented simply the expense 
of maintaining the comptroller, or official, whose duty it was to 
ascertain the date and nature of the document presented for 
registration. The necessity for such control in France grew out 
of the frequent deceptions and frauds which were practiced, es¬ 
pecially by means of ante-dating or otherwise changing the 
dates of documents. It was therefore originally undertaken in 
the interest of individuals or families, to secure the priority of 
^arieu traces them back to the tenth century.— III, 105. 
