een farmed to responsible persons, who
undertook to pay at a certain fixed rate, and made what profit they
could by the transaction. The price of commodities thus farmed would be
greatly enhanced to the consumer.

By these means the actual burthen of taxation upon the subject was
rendered to some extent uncertain and indefinite, and the benefits of
the fixed tribute system were diminished. But the chief drawback upon
it has still to be mentioned. While the claims of the crown upon its
subjects were definite and could not be exceeded, the satrap was at
liberty to make any exactions that he pleased beyond them. There
is every reason to believe that he received no stipend, and that,
consequently, the burthen of supporting him, his body-guard, and his
Court was intended to fall on the province which had the benefit of his
superintendence. Like a Roman proconsul, he was to pay himself out of
the pockets of his subjects; and, like that class of persons, he took
care to pay himself highly. It has been calculated that one satrap of
Babylon drew from his province annually in actual coin a sum equal to
L100,000. of our money. We can scarcely doubt that the claims made by
the provincial governors were, on the average, at least equal to
those of the crown; and they had the disadvantage of being irregular,
uncertain, and purely arbitrary.

Thus, what was gained by the new system was not so much the relief of
the subject from uncertain taxation as the advantage to the crown of
knowing beforehand what the revenue would be, and being able to regulate
its expenditure accordingly. Still a certain amount of benefit did
undoubtedly accrue to the provincials from the system; since it gave
them the crown for their protector. So long as the payments made to the
state were irregular, it was, or at least seemed to be, for the interest
of the crown to obtain from each province as much as it could anyhow
pay. When the state dues were once fixed, as the crown gained nothing by
the rapacity of its officers, but rather lost, since the province became
exhausted, it was interested in checking greed, and seeing that the
provinces were administered by wise and good satraps.

The control of its great officers is always the main difficulty of a
despotic government, when it is extended over a large space of territory
and embraces many millions of men. The system devised by Darius for
checking and controlling his satraps was probably the best that has
ev