The above seems to be substantially all that remains of the financial records of the early towns. We find in them the conditions already noted; few needs, abundance of land, for sharing which they could demand a payment of all new comers, payment by fees or, if a tax was necessary, perhaps by a tax on a particular class, as in the case of the bounty on wolves. Fines, too, probably formed a not inconsiderable source of revenue, for the home of religious freedom seems to have been to some extent the home of those who desired freedom from the law as well. When a general tax for the common good was levied the "estate and strength" of each must have been a matter of common knowledge impossible of concealment. It should be noted also that neither at this time nor much later under the charter government was the business of the treasury managed with that exactness which we find today. Receipts were very often far behind expenses and bills were frequently allowed to remain unpaid until the money happened to be in the treasury.
The four towns first organized under a common government in 1647 by virtue of what is known as the Patent, procured through the efforts of Roger Williams in March 1643-4. Under this government the colony remained, with the exception of an interruption lasting from the spring of 1651 to August 1654,[[16]] until it reorganized under the charter of 1663 which remained the fundamental law of the colony and state for one hundred and eighty years.
The general officers under the Patent were a president and four assistants, a general recorder, a treasurer, and a general sergeant. There was also a committee composed of six representatives from each town.[[17]] A general attorney and a solicitor were added in 1650.[[18]] Under the charter of 1663 the president was replaced by a governor and deputy governor, the number of assistants was increased to ten, and, instead of the committee of six from each town, provision was made for six deputies from Newport, four each from Providence, Portsmouth, and Warwick, and two each from all other towns that might come into existence. The other general officers remained the same as before. Under both governments the magistrates (president, or governor and deputy governor, and assistants) performed judicial functions.[[19]]
Public service was considered as a duty the fulfilment of which was enforced by law[[20]] while payment, except where the method of fees was available, was either not given at all or was but daily wages for the time actually employed in the service. Payment for service in the general assembly or the court of trials did not exceed three shillings a day, with a much heavier fine for non-attendance.[[21]] In addition to this a law of 1679 provided that diet and lodging should be furnished those in attendance, the expense to be met out of the fines and forfeitures coming into the general treasury.
The services of the recorder, sergeant, and general attorney were compensated by fees, though the first two seem also to have had daily wages for their time employed, and their payment was among the chief sources of expense at this early period.[[22]] The general treasurer enjoyed a percentage, sometimes as high as ten per cent, on the amount of his transactions.[[23]]
The care of the highways and the poor was given over to the towns.[[24]] It is evident that the expenses of such a government could not have been great.
So small were the financial operations during the earlier years that the general treasurer "returned his accompte into the courte for the year 1649, that he (had) received nothing as Treasurer and therefore have nothing in his hande,"[[25]] and Gregory Dexter, town clerk of Providence, could write to Sir Henry Vane "Sir we have not known what an excise means. We have almost forgotten what tythes are; yea, or taxes, either to church or commonweale."[[26]]. In fact for many years fines and forfeitures seem to have been the chief reliance for defraying ordinary general expenses and they continued to form a principal element of the receipts until the end of the century.[[27]]. Taxation however could not be entirely avoided. It was necessary to place the colony in a position capable of defence and in 1650 each town was ordered to have in its magazine a certain quantity of arms and ammunition, the amount assigned to each town to be equally laid upon the inhabitants of the council thereof "according to each man's strength and estate."[[28]] Taxes were also levied to pay for powder and shot sent, over from England.[[29]] Prisons were necessary and in 1655 the towns were ordered to build two prisons, two cages, and two pairs of stocks, one of each on the mainland and one on the island at a total cost of £135.[[30]] Later court houses and a state house were required, but on the whole taxation to meet ordinary expenses remained almost ludicrously small until long after Rhode Island had become a state. The exercise of the taxing power was reserved for special occasions. The most important of these was war; next came the support of an agent in England. Wars which required the employment of a paid soldiery did not begin until the end of the Seventeenth century; agents in England to look after colonial interests were a necessity from the very beginning of the colonies and lasted until the colonies became states. Particularly was this the case in Rhode Island, small in population and territory, its jurisdiction attacked on every side by the claims of more powerful neighbors,[[31]] with a charter containing grants of such unusual freedom that it was a constant target for those opposed to colonial self-government. One of the acts of the first general assembly under the Patent in 1647 was to assess upon the towns a tax of £100 to pay Roger Williams for his exertions in procuring that document more than three years before.[[32]] Williams in company with John Clarke again went to England to secure the repeal of Coddington's commission. The former returned on the accomplishment of his mission but Clarke remained and cared for the interests of the colony, and it was in connection with his efforts to secure the charter of 1663 that taxation on any considerable scale began. The following table will show the taxes levied from 1662 to the fall of the Andros government in the spring of 1689. Those taxes marked with a star were levied under the Andros régime.
| Date of Ass'm'nt. | Amount. | Purpose. | Payment may be made in. |
|---|---|---|---|
| [[33]]June 1662 | £288 "in silver pay" | Agent. | "beefe, porke pease, and wheat, at such prices as it then goeth to the merchants as moneye pay;" |
| [[34]]Oct. 1662 | £106 | Agent. | "goods" to be priced by men chosen for the purpose. |
| Oct. 1663. | £100 "in current bills." | Agent | |
| [[35]]Oct. 1664. | £600 | Agent and others to whom the colony is indebted; | wheat, peas, pork, horses, cattle, or any sort of provisions "according to the usual rate that it doth pass at amongst us". |
| [[36]]June, 1670. | £300 "in pay currant of this Collony" | Agent. Seems to have been diverted to general purposes. | pork, peas, wheat, Indian corn, oats, wool, butter or such other pay as the General treasurer may accept. |
| [[37]]Oct. 1673. | A farthing in the pound. | "payment of the collonys now knowne debts." | See general tax law p. |
| [[38]]Nov. 1678. | £300 sterling. | paying the colony's debts. | money, pork, beef, peas, Indian corn, barley, barley malt, sheeps' wool or butter at stated prices. |
| [[39]]July, 1679 | £60 sterling. | to repay disbursements in England on the colony's account. | money or pay equivalent. |
| [[40]]May, 1680. | £100 | payment of the colony's debts and supplying the treasury. | |
| [[41]]Oct. 1684. | £160 "in or as New England money." | to discharge colony's debts. | |
| x[[42]]Jan. 1686-7. | A penny in the pound; poll tax 1s., 8d. | general expenses of the Andros government. | |
| x Aug. 1687. | A penny in the pound; poll tax 1s. 8d. | General expenses of the Andros government. | |
| x Dec. 1687. | £160. | Building two court houses, repairing the prison and paying the debts of the province. | money, wool, butter, Indian corn, rye or pork at stated prices. |
| x March, 1687-8. | £53-6s. 8d. | Bounties on wolves. | same as last. |
| x [[43]]Aug. 1688. | A penny in the pound; poll tax 1s. 8d. | general expenses of the Andros government. |
The requirements of the militia service, which at this time supplied the whole military power of the colony, should also be taken into consideration. Militia systems had been established in the towns before their union under one government. The law of the island towns appointed eight training days a year for each town with two general musters. A fine of five shillings was imposed for non-appearance, and all men remaining on the island for twenty days were liable to the service.[[44]] The first assembly under the Patent enacted substantially this same law for the whole colony[[45]] and it remained essentially unchanged throughout the period of which we are treating. The limits of age were fixed at sixteen and sixty years. The only exemption from service were on account of "age, monage, sickness, lameness, or publique barringe of office at that time in the commonwealth."[[46]] In 1665, the number of training days was reduced to six and the fine for non-attendance was gradually lowered to two shillings. Those who were able seem to have been required to provide themselves with arms and ammunition, but in case of inability they might be furnished by the town council by means of rates or from the proceeds of military fines.[[47]] The military requirement acted to a certain extent as a poll tax, but the relations of the colony with the surrounding Indians was for the most part friendly; the need of strict military discipline does not seem to have been felt and various references in the laws themselves tend to show that military regulations were not strictly observed unless under the influence of some pressing emergency when special laws requiring their enforcement were passed; so that the military system seems in general to have been but little of a burden.
It is evident that on the whole taxation daring this period was light. The nominal amount of taxes of all kinds levied between 1647 and 1689 was not much over £3600 or about £84 a year. Nearly £1100 of this amount was levied between June 1662 and October 1664 to meet the expenses of procuring the charter. It was levied for the most part in "current pay" and the sterling value, probably, did not exceed £600. The collection also was extended over several years. Such taxation appears to us extremely light and even though we make, as is necessary, a large allowance for the difference in economic conditions then and now, the burden does not appear excessive,[[48]] while, if we look at the remaining years, taxation is almost insignificant;[[49]] it amounted on the average to but a few cents per capita each year. In fact it was altogether too light to meet expenses. The colony seems always to have been in debt. In September 1673 the debts due from the treasury exceeded the debts due to it by £71 9s. 2d.[[50]] Five years later the colony was indebted for £437 3s. 10d.[[51]] In 1684 the Assembly affirm that the existence of the government is endangered for the want of funds in the treasury.[[52]] In several instances money to meet public expenses was raised by contribution. In other cases the necessary amounts were advanced by individuals, to be repaid when the money should come into the treasury.[[53]] Though, judged by amount, taxation at this period was unimportant, yet it is here that we find the beginnings of a system which in theory at least endures at the present time. We turn therefore to a consideration of the law and administration of taxation.