170

TRIBUTE COLLECTED

CHAP. VII.

back a portion of them in return for those luxu-ries and necessaries which the wants of an ex-tended and populous metropolis required. Theprovinces were thus enabled to continue theircontributions to the wealth and voluptuousnessof the imperial city, though with gradually dimi-nishing force, during the reigns of the severalmonarchs who succeeded to the throne of Au-gustus .

The tributes from the several provinces havebeen estimated by Gibbon to amount to a sumequivalent to between fifteen and twenty mil-lions of our money, which, though a vast amount,was unequal to the expenditure of the imperialgovernment, which required the imposition oftaxes of various descriptions. These may beclassed under a name familiar to us by the titleof customs and excise, the first of which variedfrom ten to twelve and a half per cent, on thevarious goods imported either by land or seafrom foreign countries^ The excise was animpost on all sales of property made either byauction or in public markets, comprehending thelargest sales of houses and estates, as well asthose which derive a value only from theirinfinite variety and their daily consumption.Though the tax was no more than one in thehundred on the amount of the sales, it must haveproduced a vast sum, notwithstanding the ex-pense and difficulty of the collection, and though