Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/57

 CHAPTER III. PUBLIC REVENUE. Enumeration of the sources of public revenue. — Land-tax.— Its origin traced. — Its amount among the different tribes. — Condition of the cultivator. — Mode oj dividing the crop between the cultivator and the sovereign in Java. — Mode of paying salaries and making the public disbursements General rejlections. — Scheme of a land-tax. — Capitation or poll-tax. — Taxes on consumption. — Monopoly of trade by the sovereign. — Customs — Transit duties — Market duties. — Du'y on opium and salt. — Principle of farming the pub- lic revenue universal. — Its advantage in so rude a state of society. 1 HE object of this chapter is a description of the modes practised by the native governments of the Indian islands for raising a revenue, and will be comprehended under the three heads of Land-tax, Poll-taxes, and Taxes on Consumption. The first of these, on account of the extent to which it is carried, and its influence on the state of society, is out of all proportion the most interesting and im- portant, and will afford the principal matter of this chapter. Abundant examples of that early period of so- ciety before land is appropriated, exist in the In-