[207] ‘The members of the royal house, the great nobles, even the public functionaries, and the numerous body of the priesthood, were all exempt from taxation. The whole duty of defraying the expenses of the government belonged to the people.’ Prescott's History of Peru, vol. i. p. 56.
[208] Ondegardo emphatically says, ‘Solo el trabajo de las personas era el tributo que se dava, porque ellos no poseian otra cosa.’ Prescott's Peru, vol. i. p. 57. Compare M'Culloh's Researches, p. 359. In Mexico the state of things was just the same: ‘Le petit peuple, qui ne possédait point de biens-fonds, et qui ne faisait point de commerce, payait sa part des taxes en travaux de différents genres; c'était par lui que les terres de la couronne étaient cultivées, les ouvrages publics exécutés, et les diverses maisons appartenantes à l'empereur construites ou entretenues.’ Larenaudière's Mexique, p. 39.
[209] Mr. Prescott notices this with surprise, though, under the circumstances, it was in truth perfectly natural. He says (Hist. of Peru, vol. i. p. 159), ‘Under this extraordinary polity, a people, advanced in many of the social refinements, well skilled in manufactures and agriculture, were unacquainted, as we have seen, with money. They had nothing that deserved to be called property. They could follow no craft, could engage in no labour, no amusement, but such as was specially provided by law. They could not change their residence or their dress without a licence from the government. They could not even exercise the freedom which is conceded to the most abject in other countries—that of selecting their own wives.’
[210] The Mexicans being, as Prichard says (Physical History, vol. v. p. 467), of a more cruel disposition than the Peruvians; but our information is too limited to enable us to determine whether this was mainly owing to physical causes or to social ones. Herder preferred the Peruvian civilization: ‘der gebildetste Staat dieses Welttheils, Peru.’ Ideen zur Geschichte der Menschheit, vol. i. p. 33.
[211] See in Humboldt's Nouvelle Espagne, vol. i. p. 101, a striking summary of the state of the Mexican people at the time of the Spanish Conquest: see also History of America, book vii., in Robertson's Works, p. 907.
[212] Prescott's History of the Conquest of Mexico, vol. i. p. 34. Compare a similar remark on the invasion of Egypt in Bunsen's Egypt, vol. ii. p. 414.
[213] That there were castes in Persia is stated by Firdousi; and his assertion, putting aside its general probability, ought to outweigh the silence of the Greek historians, who, for the most part, knew little of any country except their own. According to Malcolm, the existence of caste in the time of Jemsheed, is confirmed by some ‘Mahomedan authors;’ but he does not say who they were. Malcolm's History of Persia, vol. i. pp. 505, 506. Several attempts have been made, but very unsuccessfully, to ascertain the period in which castes were first instituted. Compare Asiatic Researches, vol. vi. p. 251; Heeren's African Nations, vol. ii. p. 121; Bunsen's Egypt, vol. ii. p. 410; Rammohun Roy on the Veds, p. 269.
[214] Prescott's History of Peru, vol. i. pp. 143, 156.
[215] Prescott's History of Mexico, vol. i. p. 124.
[216] ‘Les Américains, comme les habitans de l'Indoustan, et comme tous les peuples qui ont gémi long-temps sous le despotisme civil et religieux, tiennent avec une opiniâtreté extraordinaire à leurs habitudes, à leurs mœurs, à leurs opinions…. Au Mexique, comme dans l'Indoustan, il n'étoit pas permis aux fidèles de changer la moindre chose aux figures des idoles. Tout ce qui appartenoit au rite des Aztèques et des Hindous étoit assujéti à des lois immuables.’ Humboldt, Nouv. Espagne, vol. i. pp. 95, 97. Turgot (Œuvres, vol. ii. pp. 226, 313, 314) has some admirable remarks on this fixity of opinion natural to certain states of society. See also Herder's Ideen zur Geschichte, vol. iii. pp. 34, 35; and for other illustrations of this unpliancy of thought, and adherence to old customs, which many writers suppose to be an eastern peculiarity but which is far more widely spread, and is, as Humboldt clearly saw, the result of an unequal distribution of power, compare Turner's Embassy to Tibet, p. 41; Forbes's Oriental Memoirs, vol. i. pp. 15, 164, vol. ii. p. 236; Mill's History of India, vol. ii. p. 214; Elphinstone's History of India, p. 48; Otter's Life of Clarke, vol. ii. p. 109; Transac. of Asiatic Society, vol. ii. p. 64; Journal of Asiat. Society, vol. viii. p. 116.