Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/351

Rh When Peter I. thought proper to follow the custom of Germany, and to demand his taxes in money, he made a very prudent regulation which is still followed in Russia. The gentleman levies the tax on the peasants, and pays it to the Czar. If the number of peasants diminishes, he pays all the same; if it increases, he pays no more: so that it is his interest not to worry or oppress his vassals.

HEN the inhabitants of a state are all free subjects, and each man enjoys his property with as much right as the prince his sovereignty, taxes may then be laid either on persons, on lands, on merchandises, on two of these, or on all three together.

In the taxing of persons, it would be an unjust proportion to conform exactly to that of property. At Athens the people were divided into four classes. Those who drew five hundred measures of liquid or dry fruit from their estates, paid a talent to the public; those who drew three hundred measures, paid half a talent; those who had two hundred measures paid ten minæ; those of the fourth class paid nothing at all. The tax was fair, though it was not proportionable: if it did not follow the proportion of people's property, it followed that of their wants. It was judged that every man had an equal want of the necessaries of nature, and that the necessaries of nature ought not 3