The Sýslumaðr again reports to the Amtmaðr, who checks his accounts by reference to the mean amount of previous revenue, whence results the Kapitulstaxti verðlagsskrá, or chapter value. The specie is then remitted to the Bæarfógeti,[246] or assistant treasurers. These officers are three in number; at Reykjavik, where the holder is also the Sýslumaðr, at Ísafjörð (west), and at Akureyri (north). Thence the total revenue finds its way into the hands of the Landfógeti, or chief treasurer.
The taxes on movable property are considered just and equal. Those on land are not, because the meanest soil pays as much as the best. Another grievance is the unequal distribution of the poor-tax, which is managed differently in different Quarters. For instance, a clerk with a salary of $300 per annum will be charged $10, whilst the priest of the same parish with treble the revenue pays only $20.
§ 2. Coins, Weights, and Measures.
Accounts in Iceland are kept in skillings, marks, and dollars (rigsbankdaler or rixdollars, and specie). The following table shows the comparative English value in
| 1809. | 1872. | |||
| 1 | Skilling = 1 halfpenny | = | 1 | farthing and one-eighth, in round numbers a farthing. |
| 16 | Skillings or 1 mark = 8 pence, the local shilling | = | 4 | pence and four-fifths, say fourpence halfpenny. |
| 6 | Marks or 1 Rigsbankdaler[247] = 4 shillings | = | 2 | shillings and 3 pence, or 60 cents (U.S.), the local half-crown. |
| 2 | Rigsbankdalers = 1 specie dollars = 4 shillings and 6 pence | = | 4 | shillings and 6 pence (the crown). |
The silver mark originally was worth eight ounces (eyrir)[248] of pure silver; and the eyrir = 6 peningar = 3 ertog. Each of the eight parts represented six ells of Wadmal, and thus the total was = 48 ells. In old times we read of the Örtug, a coin worth one-third of an ounce (eyrir) or twenty peningar (pence). In these days the Ort is worth only one-fifth of the specie dollar, and, being a Norwegian coin, it does not circulate in Iceland. The traveller must beware of Norwegian money, especially paper, which may be offered him by the Leith agent of the Danish steamer—it is perfectly useless, and Hr Salvesen must know it.
The following is the coinage current on the island:
Copper.—One skilling and a few old two-skilling bits.
Base metal.—Two (the penny), three, four, and eight skillings, the latter being half a mark. Of half-marks there are three or four issues. The old is inscribed “2½-Skillings Schleswig-Holstein’s Courent;” the second bears only “8 skillings,” and the third, or newest, has the figure 8 above and 2 below.
Silver.—One mark: of this coin also there are three issues; two old, marked respectively 5 and 6 skillings, and one new, marked 16 skillings. Two marks: now rarely seen. Three marks, or half the rixdollar: very common and very useful. Four marks: an old coin almost obsolete, and generally called “one-third specie,” because equal to eight rigsbank skillings. One specie dollar: presenting our crown, and very cumbrous.