Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/181

 F I N F I N 171 air, the substance being used in the construction of respira tors, or at the outlet of sewers, &c. An interesting applica tion of the principle was made in the justice room of the Mansion House, London, in 1854, where offensive smells originating just under one of the windows were effectually removed. There are various devices in existence for purify- in^ the air admitted to railway carriages and other inclosed spaces. Thus the air may be passed through wire screens, or through a spray of water, &c. In connexion with biolo gical research and the genii theory of disease, the removal, by nitration, of minute foreign particles from air is a mat ter of great moment. For further information see, among other works, Ilumbcr s Water Supply of Cities and Towns, 1876 ; Sixth Report of the Royal Commis sion on Rivera Pollution (published in 1875) ; Lancet Sanitary Com missioners Report on Filters, 1867 ; Wanklyn and Chapman s Water Analysis ; Philosophical Magazine, 4th series, vol. xii. p. 30 (Witt) ; Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, May 1867 (Byrne); Paper by Mr Pearse, on Water Purification, Sanitary and Industrial, to Society of Engineers, March 4, 1878 ; Paper by M. Bischof, on The Purification of Water, to Society of Arts, April 25, 1878 ; Registrar-General s Returns for 1876, &c. ; Chemical Neivs, vols. xxxiii. and xxxiv. (Wanklyn, Hildebrand) ; Dictionaries of Ure, Knight, Tomlinson, Watts, &c. (A. B. M.) FINALE DELL EMILIA, a town of Italy, circle of Mirandola, province of Modena, is situated on the right bank of the Panaro, 10 miles from its junction with the Po. It receives its name from its situation on the border line between the duchy of Modena and the States of the Church. It has manufactures of silk and woollen fabrics, and some trade in corn, wine, hemp, and fruits. Finale owes its origin to a castle connected with the monastery of Nonantola. The town was taken by the imperial troops in 1703 on its being abandoned by the French. It was again taken by the French in 1704., and by Prince Eugene in 1706. The population in 1871 was 445G. FINANCE IN the 13th and 14th centuries, the words finare, finacio, and financia were employed, principally by writers in France, to denote those bargains by which the inde finite liabilities of ancient tenures were commuted for fixed sums payable to the immediate lord of the tenant. It as at this time that the commutation became general, except when the service of the tenant was of a military or dignified character. Even here, however, a remarkable innovation was made at an early period in English social history, on which we shall comment presently. In course of time the word finance became nearly synonymous with the product of taxation, and the finances of a country (though the phrase is sometimes used to denote the aggregate revenues of those who are liable to taxation) are understood to be the ways and means by which the expenditure of government, imperial and local, are met. In the present article we shall deal with the history of finance only. Under the head of TAXATION&quot;, the reader will find an analysis of the economical theory, in accordance with which taxation is shown to be innocuous and equitable, or the reverse. The most ancient forms of finance have always been taxes on produce. Such appear to have been the taxes of ancient Egypt ; such were and still are the principal taxes of Turkey and Hindustan. Whatever may have been the character of the first agricultural settlement, the development of a central government has always been assisted by a theory that the true lordship of the soil is the property of the state or the ruler, on which the immediate occupant of the soil is dependent, and to which a portion of the produce is due. The conquests of Rome always involved a confiscation of the vanquished nation s land, and the re-grant of a portion of the confiscated estate on what we might call by analogy a base tenure. In the same way, when in the 10th and llth centuries the Christianized Teutonic tribes of north eastern Europe pressed on the heathen Slavs, the victory of the former was always followed by the establishment of a military and well-endowed church, on which a third of the conquered territory was generally settled, the vanquished race being permitted, though in a state of dependence, to occupy the residue. The settlement of yEgina and Eubcea by the Athenian lot-holders, to say nothing of more ancient occupancies, was of the same character. Here indeed the state distributed the ownership which it had acquired by its arms among its citizens, though doubtless it claimed military service from them as a garrison, and probably exacted a revenue which was similar in its nature to a rent. The financial system of ancient states was, as a rule, ex ceedingly simple. The charges of government were few, except in the vast despotisms of Asia and Egypt, and later on in the great military republics of Carthage and Rome, where the revenues of the king and state were derived from tribute in money or kind from inferior or dependent districts and races. The district of the Aristotelian ideal city (Politics, vii. 10, 11) is to be divided into two portions, one the property of the state, out of the produce of which the charges of the national religion and the costs of the common tables are to be supplied, the other to be held in private ownership. The philosopher does not con template the necessity of making provision for the ordinary charges of government. The magistrates were unpaid ; the army was a militia, serving at its own charges. When the Lacedaemonians undertook the command of the allies in the Peloponnesian war, they had no public revenue. Later on in their history, we are told by Aristotle that the public exchequer of the Lacedaemonians was ill managed, for most of the land of Laconia belonged to the Spartiats, and they assessed themselves. The beginning of Athenian finance was a revenue derived from the silver mines in the promontory of Sunium, the ownership of which was, it seems, vested in the state. It was the practice of the Athenian Government to grant a perpetual lease of allotments in these mines, and to exact, moreover, a small percentage on the produce, reserving to itself a right of forfeiture and re-entry if the terms of the lease were infringed, or the produce rents were unpaid. With the proceeds of these mines the Athenians built their first navy, and with this navy they won the victory of Salamis, thus paving the way to their naval supremacy. The next great source of Athenian revenue was the con tribution from those protected states which failed to supply a proper naval contingent for the defence of the ^Kgean. Most of the Greek cities of Asia Minor and the islands owed their security from the attacks of the Phoenician navy, then dependent on Persia, to the vigorous and effective sea forces of the Athenian republic. It was cheaper for them to commute their contingent for a money payment, and the police of the sea became far more efficient when wielded by a single power, which had every interest in bringing its navy to the highest pitch of serviceableness. The Athenians contrived to economize, and, later on, to increase the contributions of those states whom they pro tected. Considering that they had fully satisfied the terms of their own bargain if they thrust back the Persian despot, they concluded that they might fairly accumulate a surplus in the public treasury, and even expend a portion of their revenues in embellishing their city. We may be certain that the power which this revenue gave the Athenian republic was the chief cause of that jealous fear which