Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/69

 PUBLIC REVENUE. 57 The share of the sovereign is necessarily farther reduced by the remissions he is compelled to make for management ; the amount of which, however, it is not practicable to state, as no regular scale of charges is established. One-fifth of the sovereign's share has been occasionally paid as the commission for collection. From this account of the Javanese village, it will be seen that it possesses many decided advantages over the similar municipal institution of the Hindus. Each man's possession is in his own immediate ma- nasement, and therefore must feel the advanta^-es of individual exertion and enterprise, which are pal- sied by the system of common management. The customary allowance of a sixth for reaping is just so much in favour of the cultivator j and his ultimate share with the sovereign is not frittered away by beins: wasted on the vile herd of miscreants and vagabonds belonging to the Hindu village, under the various and hicongruous appellations of astro- nomers, doctors, poets, musicians, barbers, and dancing girls. Even the lazy artificers of the Hin- du village, v.'ho receive a share of the crop, and are of course paid on a principle which excludes all the advantages of competition, have no existence in the organization of the Javanese village, each peasant of which resorts to the general market for the best or the cheapest work. This state of things contri- butes, with the demand for labour, the abundance