236 
TEHERAN. 
time of the levy, the assessment is not valid, and the sum cannot be 
received. 
The three principal branches of the tribute which the people pay are 
1st. Maleeat; 2d. Sader; and 3d. Peish-Kesh . 
The Maleeat is the hereditary original right of the crown, and consists 
in produce and money. The King gets in kind one-fifth of the produce 
of the land, i. e. of wheat, barley, silk, tobacco, indigo, &c. and arti¬ 
cles of that description: and one-fifth in money of all the vegetables, 
fruit, and lesser produce of the earth, which the proprietor may sell. 
Though the proportion be paid in kind, yet it is assessed, not by the 
actual levy of every fifth sheaf, &c. but by an indirect criterion of pro¬ 
duce, deduced from the number of oxen kept by the landholder; and 
this part of the revenue is collected accordingly by a corresponding 
rate imposed upon the growth of the land. Thus the possessor of 
twelve oxen is supposed to possess also an extent of land, the cultiva¬ 
tion of which may require that number, and is therefore assessed to pay 
a quantity of corn proportioned to the assumed amount of his gross 
receipt. 
The King collects one-fifth also in money of all the vegetables, 
fruits, and lesser produce of the earth, which the proprietor may sell. 
Formerly these tributes, either in kind or in money, were only one- 
tenth : but their amount has been doubled by the present King. 
The inhabitants of towns pay according to an assessment imposed 
on the place, and founded on the number of houses which it may 
contain, and not according to their individual means. And this levy 
on any particular town is but a part only of that charged on the 
district which contains it; thus Ispahan , which for instance has Room 
and Kashan within its administration, is required to furnish a specified 
sum, of which it pays part, and divides the rest among the second- 
rate towns, which again subdivide their own proportions among the 
villages around; and collect, each in their gradations, the appointed 
amount of the tribute, and transfer the whole to the Royal treasury. 
The government requires that the collector of any given district should 
