s corn, was required to
furnish 500 boy eunuchs. These charges, however, were all fixed by the
crown, and may have been taken into consideration in assessing the money
payment, the main object of the whole arrangement evidently being to
make the taxation of each province proportionate to its wealth and
resources.

The assessment of the taxation upon the different portions of his
province was left to the satrap. We do not know on what principles he
ordinarily proceeded, or whether any uniform principles at all were
observed throughout the Empire. But we find some evidence that, in
places at least, the mode of exaction and collection was by a land-tax.
The assessment upon individuals, and the actual collection from them,
devolved, in all probability, on the local authorities, who distributed
the burthen imposed upon their town, village, or district as they
thought proper. Thus the foreign oppressor did not come into direct
contact with the mass of the conquered people, who no doubt paid the
calls made upon them with less reluctance through the medium of their
own proper magistrates.

If the taxation of the subject had stopped here, he would have had
no just ground of complaint against his rulers. The population of the
Empire cannot be estimated at less than forty millions of souls. The
highest estimate of the value of the entire tribute, both in money and
kind, will scarcely place it at more than ten millions sterling. Thus
far, then, the burthen of taxation would certainly not have exceeded
five shillings a head per annum. Perhaps it would not have reached half
that amount. But, unhappily, neither was the tribute the sole tax which
the crown exacted from its subjects, nor had the crown the sole right
of exacting taxation. Persian subjects in many parts of the Empire paid,
besides their tribute, a water-rate, which is expressly said to have
been very productive. The rivers of the Empire were the king's; and when
water was required for irrigation, a state officer superintended the
opening of the sluices, and regulated the amount of the precious fluid
which might be drawn off by each tribe or township. For the opening of
the sluices a large sum was paid to the officer, which found its way
into the coffers of the state. Further, it appears that such things
as fisheries--and if so, probably salt-works, mines, quarries, and
forests--were regarded as crown property, and yielded large sums to the
revenue. They appear to have b