Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/178

168 work nor possess property. The result was a revolt attended with much bloodshed, an abandonment of the tax, and the recall of the Governor.

In one of the states of Central America a poll tax was recently required to be paid monthly; all adult male inhabitants of the several towns and cities being obliged to present themselves at the municipal treasuries and pay their dues in person.

In the colonial period of our history the poll tax was enacted by nearly all the North American colonies at one time or another. In Virginia and Maryland it was for a long time the only direct tax; and in the latter State it was imposed upon all free men and free women, and upon all free children over twelve years of age; and was rendered particularly odious and burdensome from the circumstance that its payment was required in tobacco, a given number of pounds to the head, the value of which commodity was not constant, but varied with supply, which at times was intentionally restricted, with the intent of augmenting its market price. There was, however, another side to this experience. The poll tax in the two States named was almost a measure of necessity. Land was of small value, for there was in the new colonies little distinction between improved and unimproved lands. Slaves were not taxable as personal estate, but belonged to the land and figured as real property; and the personal estates of the planters were comparatively small. Polls were therefore the most available measure of taxation, and tobacco was the currency of the day. All bills and charges were made out in so many pounds of tobacco; all lawyers' and court fees were so determined; the parish and county levies were fixed in weights of tobacco; and the minister drew as his salary so many pounds of tobacco from each parishioner, without respect to the market value of the crop. It accordingly happened that a poll levy might be excessive one year and nominal the next; with lawyers, ministers, and clerks rejoicing in abundant means one season and reduced to starvation point the next. Unequal, in proportion to wealth of the payer, as such a poll tax was, its inequality was furthermore greatly aggravated by fluctuations in the exchangeable value of the medium in which it was payable.

During the colonial period also, in North America, men's persons were included in the schedules of property made in reference to taxation; and instead of having a fixed sum, as was subsequently the rule in assessing a poll tax, the value of the poll was rated according to the earning capacity of the individual; and if he was old and infirm, or in any way disabled, the value of the poll was placed at a small amount.

Possibly by reason of English and American colonial experiences, and perhaps from an infiltration as it were, down through