280

SYSTEM OF TAXATION-PUBLIC REVENUE.

Once a year, and sometimes a whole year in anticipation, come the king's tax-gatherers; and the poor peasants must often then turn out the bread of their families or their clothing, to meet the royal demand-or rather, the far more exorbitant exactions of his rapacious deputies and constables. The regular annual taxation of the native Christians is the following. The kharáj, capitation-tax, amounting to five sahib koráns, ($1,25). Vineyards, gardens and cotton-fields are taxed twelve and a half shahies (fifteen cents) for each tănnáp, a square of about sixty feet. A fifth part of the wheat and of all other grains, belongs to government. A khalwar, (which is about six hundred pounds,) of straw, at the threshing-floors, pays two and a half sahib koráns-about sixty cents. A female buffalo is taxed sixty cents; a cow, thirty-three cents; and a sheep, ten cents. The males of cattle that labor are not subject to taxation, the exemption being intended to encourage their increase and augment the productions of the soil.

The Muhammedan peasantry are nominally subject to the same amount of annual taxation as the native Christians, except the capitation-tax, which is peculiar to the latter, and is regarded as the price of their privilege of professing Christianity. The Christians, however, suffer much more from wanton extortion, than the Muhammedans. The legal taxation by the government would be found quite tolerable to both classes, were it not for the numberless and nameless illegal exactions in addition, which the peasantry suffer from the collectors and inferior officers; and the yet heavier burden that bears constantly upon them, in the habitual extortions of their oppressive landlords. Custom allows to these landlords a variety of annual contributions, from their serfs. From each household, they are entitled to five days of gratuitous labor, two loads of dried manure moulded into cakes for fuel, twenty eggs and two fowls. But these contributions are all wantonly increased to almost any extent, at the will of the oppressor, and the ability of the sufferer.

I may not find it more convenient elsewhere than here, to speak somewhat at length of the sources of the public revenue in Persia, and this I can do in the shortest form, by quoting from two or three paragraphs of Malcolm on the subject. I may premise that the soil, in that country, is owned chiefly by the hereditary nobility and the clergy. A portion of it, perhaps a fifth, is the property of the crown, (khalisa,) being also farmed by the higher classes. Very little is possessed by the tillers, who, as I have before stated, sustain to the owners the relation of serfs to lords. The fixed revenue,' says Malcolm, is chiefly derived from government lands, from taxes and imposts on landed property, and on every species of goods and merchandize. Crown lands are cultivated by the peasantry on terms very favorable to the cultivator. When the crop has been measured by an officer appointed for the purpose, if the seed be supplied by

* Parts only of the paragraphs referred to are quoted.

USUAL AND EXTRAORDINARY PRESENTS.

281

government, it is returned; and ten per cent. of the whole is next put aside for the reapers and threshers; after which the remainder is equally divided between the cultivator and the king. Lands that are the property of individuals pay according to their situation in respect to water. When the supply is certain and obtained from a` flowing stream, they pay twenty per cent. on produce, after deducting seed and the allowance before stated. If the water comes from aqueducts, they pay fifteen per cent.; and if from wells or reservoirs, only five.'

Of other sources of revenue, Malcolm remarks, A part of the fixed revenue is derived from ground-rents of houses, rents of caravanserais, baths, shops, water-mills, manufactures, and duties on all kinds of foreign and home merchandize. The revenue collected from shops is very considerable. When these belong to government, a rent is fixed proportionate to the gain, derived by those who hire them; when they belong to individuals, the government claims twenty per cent. on their annual profits. The principles on which the whole of the fixed revenue is settled are just and moderate; and the system is so perfectly understood, that it is [not necessarily] attended with either difficulty or oppression. But unfortunately, the monarchs have never been satisfied with this, and its justice and moderation only serve to make the people feel, more sensibly, the irregular and oppressive taxes they are continually exposed to. The first of these may be termed usual and extraordinary presents. The usual presents to the king are those made annually, by all governors of provinces, and districts, chiefs of tribes, ministers, and all other officers in high charge, at the feast of noo-rose, or vernal equinox. Every officer of high rank must make this annual offering, which is indeed deemed a part of the revenue and falls ultimately on the farmers, cuivators and manufacturers. The amount paid is generally regulated by usage; to fall short, is loss of office; and to exceed, is increase of favor. There are extraordinary presents, of a less definite nature, but which are also of very considerable amount. Every person appointed to a high employment makes a present as a token of gratitude. It is usually settled before he is nominated, and may often be deemed the purchase-money of his station. The produce of fines, imposed by the customary law, and of involuntary presents extorted from such as are suspended or dismissed from employment, which are levied on the pretext of their delinquency, is very considerable.’

If

The most oppressive of all the imports is called Sûdir, a term which means a public requisition and as opposed to Máliát, or fixed revenue, denotes taxation raised to provide for extraordinaries. an addition is made to the army-if the king desires to construct an aqueduct or build a palace-if troops are marching through the country and require to be furnished with provisions-if a foreign mission arrives in Persia-if one of the royal family is married-in short, on any occurrence more than ordinary, an impost is laid,

282

CAUSES OF WRETCHEDNESS-ROYAL BRIDE.

sometimes on the whole kingdom, at others only on particular provinces. The sâdir extends to all classes. It usually bears lightest on the wandering tribes, not only because they are the poorest, but because they are the most impatient of such taxation. It falls heaviest upon the proprietors of estates and citizens. It is, or rather ought to be, levied according to defined rules, and every person should pay the sûdir, in the same proportion as he pays the mâlîát; but the governors of provinces usually exercise an arbitrary discretion in collecting this tax which renders it more oppressive. They settle the gross amount each village is to pay, and this affords them an opportunity of showing partiality and committing injustice. This tax is very severe upon the poorer classes of cultivators, from the necessity of selling the crops upon the ground, at a low price, in order to pay it.

The lower classes in Persia are thus literally and strictly rayahsflocks-which are kept merely for their fleece; and they are usually shorn so often and closely as greatly to diminish their value and the profit of the owner. So grasping is the hand of avarice that the fowl itself that lays the golden egg is not unfrequently killed. It is not natural to Persia, and especially this part of it, to be a wretched country. It is her oppressive government, her army of idle despots and the general corruption of her morals, that fills this fair inheritance with wailing and wo. Said our Meerza, on one occasion, "Our country is miserable, and has no health." Why, I inquired. "Because the great men are poor and have no money," he replied. Mistaken man! May he and his countrymen learn the true source of their misery-their wickedness—and embrace their only remedy, the gospel.

CHAPTER XVII.

JOURNAL: AUGUST-DECEMBER, 1836.

We rode out about two miles from the city, Aug. 22, by invitation of the governor, to witness the ceremony of Khallat Pooshân, putting on the robe, i. e. a robe of honor, received by the chief magistrate as a token of favor from the king. In this instance, both the governor and his eldest son received robes, the latter, as an expression of royal congratulation, in prospect of his soon being married to a daughter of the old king. To-day, the intended bride reached Oróomiah, after a long journey from Tehrân, and her arrival added much to the interest of the occasion.

*Hist. of Persia, Vol. II. p. 336 et seq.