Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/72

 60 PUBLIC REVENUE. the people, the number of cultivators reserved by the prince for the production of a direct revenue in money or kind, is very inconsiderable. So fa- miliar is the manner of payment by assignments of land to the notions of the people, that one of the distinctions of official rank is founded upon it j and as the Tartar sovereigns of Hindustan ranked their military captains by the nominal establish- ment of horses assigned to them by the sovereign, so we find the rank of the nobles of Java frequent- ly determined by the number of cultivators on their assignments of land, from the chief of fifty Cha- cliaJis, or families, to him of five hundred, of a thousand, or upwards. The first minister, ibr ex- ample, whose income, after that of the heir to the throne, is the highest of all, is denominated " the lord of two thousand ;" that is, of two thousand cultivators. As long as a revenue is paid in kind, and as long, indeed, as the character of the people continues what it is, I cannot help thinking that there is an evident advantaj^e in this rude mode of conductin": the business of the treasury, if I may so call it. It is, in the first place, attended by marked economy, for the inevitable waste which would accompany its collection by the officers of government is avoided. The cultivator is placed, by this system, either under the protection of an individual, whose in- terests are assimilated with his own, or who is too