The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 02

by Unknown

The conclusion deducible from all this is, that the sums enumerated by Herodotus by no means comprehended all that the provinces had to furnish, but only what the satraps paid over to the king’s exchequer.

These imposts were extended over the whole empire, Persis alone excepted, immunity from tribute being a natural privilege of the victorious nation.

To these principal sources of public revenue were added others, founded partly in the peculiar character of the country, partly in the nature of its constitution.

To the first class belongs the revenue derived from the rights of irrigation. Persia is a very arid country, and, with the finest climate, its fertility depends in consequence on the supply of water. In ancient, as well as modern times, this has furnished its rulers with a pretext for exacting contributions from their subjects, of which Herodotus records a remarkable example. One of the most fertile portions of the country was divided by the river Aces into five distinct branches or arms, which extended up into the mountains; among these mountains the kings of Persia caused to be erected mighty embankments, in order to keep in their own power the water of the river, and employed this power to extract from their subjects an additional tribute.

Another source of revenue to the royal treasury was the right of fishing in the canal which connects the lake Mœris with the Nile. During the six months that the water flowed into the lake, the revenue amounted to a talent each day; during the remaining six, to twenty minæ.

In addition to these, the confiscations of the property of satraps and other grandees was a considerable source of revenue; in Persia, as in all despotic states, the loss of life being accompanied by the forfeiture of property.

The free-will offerings, however, as they were styled, which were presented to the king, were probably still more considerable. It was the universal custom of the East for none to present himself before a superior, more especially the king, without a present. The grandees of the court, the satraps for instance, sought in this manner to purchase or retain the king’s favour, but on certain solemnities, particularly on the king’s birthday, such offerings flowed in from all parts of the empire. These consisted not so much in money, as in rarities and valuables of every description, such as are delineated on the ruins of Persepolis. What treasures must on such an occasion have been accumulated out of the immense empire of Persia!

Such an arrangement with respect to the public revenue shows at the outset that the expenditure also must have been no less peculiar.

We have already remarked, that we must dismiss the idea of anything like a public treasury, out of which the servants of the state were regularly paid, an arrangement equally unknown in ancient as in modern Persia.

All the expenses which could be characterized as public, such as the maintenance of armies, etc., are not met by the resources of the king’s exchequer, but previously provided for in the provinces. The king’s treasure remains a private chest for his personal use, from which he takes what he wants for the purpose of making presents, not in coin, but in ingots, or in vessels of gold, even the expenses of the court and household not being provided for out of it, but defrayed in the two following ways.