Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/71

 PUBLIC REVENUE. SQ the peasantry. Whatever is grown within the pre- cincts of the village, as here defined, is free from direct taxation, among which may be enmnerated a variety of leguminous plants and farinaceous roots, fruits, materials of cordage, and the useful and abundant bamboo, of almost universal applica- tion in the domestic and agricultural economy of the cultivator. If we would know what is the amount of the re- venue of a sovereign in the Indian Archipelago, we cannot do this by an examination of the records of his treasury, nor by the extent of his territory, but we can commit no great error if we have ascer- tained the number of his cultivators. The effective records of their exchequers do, in fact, consist of such documents. The revenue in Java, for example, is mostly paid in kind ; but, neither in this shape nor in any other, does much of it find its way into the treasury. Almost every one connected with the government or its administration is paid by assign- ments of land ; including princes of the blood, fa- vourites, officers of state, the army, from its highest to its lowest functionaries, and the very menials of the palace. The prince does not say to his first mini- ster, " Your salary shall consist of so much money, butit shall consist of so much corn, or of theproduce of the labour of so many cultivators." He holds the same language to one of his grooms. The quanti- ty of land, or, to speak more in the language of