As the end of a financial system adopted by a nation of conquerors must be different from that of all others, so also must the internal regulations belonging to such a system.
The end in question is no other than that of obliging the conquered nations, whose land is esteemed the property of the conquerors, to pay for everything, and provide for the maintenance of the king, the court, and, in some sense, of all the nation.
Herodotus tells us that, independently of the tribute, the whole Persian empire was divided into portions for the support of the king and his army, or his suite, each district being obliged to provide for a certain period. In consequence of this arrangement the payments from the provinces were principally made in the fruits and natural productions of the earth, exacted with a reference to the fertility of each soil and its natural advantages. The best of every country was considered as the property of the king, and was delivered to him by the rulers of the provinces; and as by these means provisions of all sorts were accumulated at the royal residence from every quarter of the empire, there necessarily reigned there an abundance and luxury which corrupted the morals of the court, and introduced those habits of waste and sensuality for which the Persians were so notorious.
Not only, however, was the king’s court to be maintained, but also those of the satraps of each province, which were modelled on that of their master; their suite was often no less numerous, and they kept up a state which often exceeded their income; and as the wants of the monarch were supplied from all parts of his empire, so were theirs from every part of each department. Particular spots were appointed to provide particular necessaries or luxuries, and Herodotus tells us that Masistius, satrap of Babylon, reserved no less than four considerable villages of Babylonia for the support of his Indian hounds.
To these burdens was added the maintenance of the king’s troops, which were quartered in large corps through all the provinces, and which were paid, not out of the king’s private chest, or from the provincial tribute, but by the provinces they occupied.
With these contributions in kind were reckoned the payments in specie, or rather the tributes in uncoined gold and silver, of which Herodotus has afforded us his well-known statement. Whether these were collected by way of a poll-tax, or an income-tax, or in whatever other way, the historian does not inform us; but he assures us that they amounted annually to fourteen thousand five hundred talents. The gold and silver thus collected—the Indians alone paying their tribute in gold—was stored up in ingots, of which the king made use as he found occasion.
We may, however, readily suppose that the sums set down by Herodotus did not always continue the same. The mighty armaments undertaken by the Persian government, especially under Xerxes, called for extraordinary expenses, and necessitated an augmentation of the imposts, as is expressly mentioned. When mercenary troops came to be a part of the Persian establishment, an augmentation of the tribute was a necessary consequence.
Nor were the sums of which the satraps drained the provinces comprehended in those already enumerated. The satrap of Babylon alone received every day more than an Attic medimnus full of silver, which on a moderate computation made up a revenue of more than £100,000 sterling, and the sum paid to the king from the same province amounted to about twice as much.
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.
All the inferior attendants in the court, including the bodyguard, which in Europe would receive pay, were not paid in specie at the court of Persia, but in produce; and to this purpose were devoted the provisions of which such abundance was transmitted from the different provinces, and which more than sufficed for the consumption of the court.
On the other hand, all of a more elevated rank, the great officers of the court, the friends or kinsmen of the king, who on account of their birth or offices might aspire to favours or pensions, did not receive anything in money, but were rather in assignments of towns or cities, which the king disposed of at his pleasure, in virtue of his title as sole proprietor of the chattels and lives of his subjects; as the autocrat of all the Russias was in the habit of making a present of some thousands of serfs. The individual to whom such an assignment was made received the revenue of the place in question, and the king possessed accurate accounts of their value, so as to regulate the distribution of his favours. Nevertheless the person thus favoured appears to have been obliged to make over a part of his income to the king in the way of tribute. With individuals of the highest rank, the mother or consort of the monarch, luxury had attained such an excess, that a variety of places were assigned them to provide severally for even the most insignificant of their wants. In this manner a fruitful district, a day’s journey in length, was allotted to furnish the queen’s zone; and thus Themistocles received the city of Magnesia, producing a revenue of fifty talents, to supply him with bread, Lampsacus to furnish wine, and Myus the side dishes of his table.