Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/913

* T ABO KITES. 799 ( 1433), the Taborites continued the war, but were overtlirown in the battle of Buliniiscbbiod. Jlay 30, 143-1:. The lonniant of theni was absorbed in the Bohemian Brethren (q.v.). See Hussites. TABRIZ, ti-brez', Tavris, or Tebris. The second largest town of Persia, capital of the Province of Azerbaijan, situated in a wide val- ley, on the Aji, a tributary of Lake Urumiah, 35 miles east of the lake, in about latitude 38" 4' N.. longitude W 18' E., over 4000 feet above the sea (ilap: Persia, B 2). Owing to the many earthquakes, large sections of the town are in ruins. The place is healthful, although the weather is bitterly cold a third of the j'ear. In spite of the altitude, the bare rocks rising on the northeast and east and the peak of Sahand standing on the south give Tabriz the appearance of being shut in by mountains. The squalor of the native huts and the poor sanitary precautions are counteracted by the abundance of water and the numerous refreshing orchards and gardens. The town, in addition to its hundred public baths, numerous caravansaries, and five Cliristian (Ar- menian) churches, has over 300 mosques. Among these, the "Blue Mosque,' incrusted within and without with blue faience tiles, is especially • worthy of mention. The 'Ark' in the centre of the town, the residence of the heir apparent, is a large, somewhat imposing brick building. Its cracked walls bear witness to the frequency and violence of earthquakes in this region. The 'Great JIaidan' square and the ample barracks are examples of modern progress. There is an international telegraph. IJefore the Cau- casus Railroad and the Caspian Sea became im- portant mediums of transportation and the Rus- sian trade was diverted to Astara and Resht, Tabriz was the emporium of Western trade. In 1898-99. according to the books of the cus- tom-house, the exports amounted to £'319.930 and imports to £682,330, but it is likely that these figures are much less than the total trade. Dried fruits, silk, and various kinds of manufactures are exported from Tabriz. There are lead mines in the vicinity, and copper and cobalt are found in the Sahand. The population is estimated at from 1(1.5.000 to 200,000. It was fonnerly much larger. Taliriz is said to have been founded by the wife of Harun al-Rashid in 791. but is mentioned be- fore that date. In 858, 1041, 1721, and 1780 it was devastated by earthquakes. In that of I72I 80,000 persons lost their lives. It was held in turn by the Arabs, Seljuks, Mongols, and Turko- mans, from whom it was taken bj' the Persians. It was several times in the possession of the Turks and was finally taken from them by Nadir Shah in 1730. Tabriz is essentially a Turkish city and Turkisb is the prevalent language. TAB'ULA BANTI'NA. The chief source of knowledge of the Oscan tongue ; a bronze tablet in the Naples Museum, containing on one side an Oscan inscription of 33 lines referring to affairs of Bantia, and on the other a portion of a law in Latin. It was found near Bantia in 1793. TABUI/A ILI'ACA (Lat.. Ilian Tablet). A small relief in soft marble found near the ancient Bovilbe in 1083, and now in the Capitoline Mu- seum at Rome. The slab. lOXll'l' inches, is covered with scenes from the Trojan War. taken from the Iliad and the poems of the Trojan TABULAR STANDARD. Cycle (see Cyclic Poets), v^ith explanatory Greek inscriptions. It is generally sujijioscd to have been intended for school instruction, but was probably an ornamental panel of a book- case. TAB'ULA'RIUM. A large building on the slope of the Capiloline Hill lacing the Roman Fornni. built by Quiiitus Lutatius t'atulus in u.c. 78 for the preservation of State records. It rested on massive substructures and consisted of a series of vaults with an upper portico of Doric half columns, some of which are still to be seen. Its extent corresponded with the present Palazzo del Senatore, which is built on the ancient walls. The structure is in good preservation, although the masonry of the vaults is corroded by the action of salt stiu'ed in tbeui during the Middle .^ges. TABULAR STANDARD. A proposed stand- ard of value which should obviate dilficulties due to changes in the purchasing power of money. The proposal involves the preparation, by public authority, of a table of relative values of cer- tain selected commodities after the fashion of an index number, and the permissive use of this table as a legal standard in contracts involving deferred payments. A tabular standard has been briefly defined as an oHicial index number. Its compilation would require a commission or other body with power and facilities to collect price statistics. Having decided what commodities should be employed as basis for the standard, the commission would then calculate a .yearly or monthly index number according to some accepted method. (See article Index Nujibers.) The statistics would of course be public, and any one who chose could verify the calculation. The rise and fall of prices would either be expressed in percentages, or an arbitrary unit would be adopted, whose changing values, expressed in mone}', would indicate the same thing. The practical operation of the tabular stand- ard is simple. When a person makes a loan of say $100 for one ,vear. the contract entitles him to receive the same number of dollars (usually with interest) at the end of the specified time, but it does not insure that the $100 which he lent and the $100 he receives will have the same pur- chasing power. If prices have risen in the in- terval, his $100 will buy less, if prices have fallen it will buy more. In so far as changed purchasing power is not compensated by a change in rates of interest, debtors are likely to be burdened by an appreciation, creditors by a depreciation, of the value of money. Suppose, however, the tabular standard to be employed, and that A sells a piece of property to B for $12,000. of which M is to be paid at once, and '4 more at the end of each succeeding year. The $3000 cash is of course paid as such. But after a year the tabular standard might show the purchasing power of money to have fallen 10 per cent. Expressed in tabular units, if at the time of sale a unit was worth $10. it would now be worth $11,11, giving the proportion 10.00:11.11: : $3000: $3333.33. which last figure is what B will have to i>ay. If at the end of the sec- ond year a unit of the tabular standard was worth $9, B would be called on for only $2,700. Whether he pays more or less in money, the sum will always have a uniform value in terms