CHAP. IX.

TAXATION.

217

was compelled to be conveyed to Constanti-nople, and that of the rest of Africa to Rome V’

The tribute of the provinces which in thetime of Pliny had been directed to be trans-mitted in silver, was ordered to be collected andforwarded in gold, or only in such silver moneyas was of the imperial coinage.

It has been seen that the treasure whichRome by her conquests had drawn from Mace-donia had been so great, as to make the levyingof taxes unnecessary during several generations,and that the treasures of the Ptolemies , and thecontinued supplies of the precious metals whichfor some time after had continued to flow intoRome from Egypt , had increased the quantityof money, and had raised the price of all othercommodities. But in the three or four cen-turies between the reign of Augustus and theestablishing of Constantinople , money had be-come scarcer, and the emperor, instead of lower-ing the taxes as the prices of commodities de-clined, or, which is the same, as the value ofmoney had increased, raised them to a heightvery far beyond the point they had ever reachedbefore. In addition to the taxes on articles ofconsumption which had been before levied, an-other was imposed which partook of the natureof a tax upon property and a capitation tax. This

1 Montesquieu , Grandeur et Decadence des Remains, cap.xvii.