Page:Secret History of the Court of the Emperor Justinian 1674.djvu/145

 of Indigence imaginable, and after that I shall relate how he behaved himself towards the Priests.

Justinian (as I said before) had ingrossed and impropriated, all the old Duties upon Com­modities, and layd new upon every thing, not exempting such as were necessary for sub­sistance, by which he got a third part of what ever was sold by his Subjects: But I will not go about to make a particular Enumeration of all the Injuries that I have seen; it would a­mount to an incredible business; I shall only say, he layd a grievous Tax upon the Bread, which the Artisans, the poor, and the sick, bought every year, which by Computation amounted annually to 300 Livres of Gold, and thereby constrained those poor Creatures to sustain themselves upon very ill bread, full of dust, and scarce possible to be eaten; so far had the Excess of his Impiety transported him. In the mean time, those who had the Charge of Provisions, taking that Example, to make their own Markets, heaped up vast Riches as well as he, and by their wicked Inventions and Projects, starv’d those poor wretches, whose Misery had more need to have had some way found out, to have made things cheaper, then that they should be sold to them by their weight in Gold: For no Man was permitted to bring any Corn from other parts, and all were obliged to take their Bread of him.

The Pipes which conveyed the Water into the City being broke, the Emperor was sensible it was