In the reign of Augustus and his successors, duties were imposed on
every kind of merchandise, which through a thousand channels flowed to
the great centre of opulence and luxury; and in whatsoever manner the
law was expressed, it was the Roman purchaser, and not the provincial
merchant, who paid the tax. [97] The rate of the customs varied from the
eighth to the fortieth part of the value of the commodity; and we have
a right to suppose that the variation was directed by the unalterable
maxims of policy; that a higher duty was fixed on the articles of
luxury than on those of necessity, and that the productions raised or
manufactured by the labor of the subjects of the empire were treated
with more indulgence than was shown to the pernicious, or at least the
unpopular commerce of Arabia and India. [98] There is still extant a long
but imperfect catalogue of eastern commodities, which about the time
of Alexander Severus were subject to the payment of duties; cinnamon,
myrrh, pepper, ginger, and the whole tribe of aromatics a great variety
of precious stones, among which the diamond was the most remarkable for
its price, and the emerald for its beauty; [99] Parthian and Babylonian
leather, cottons, silks, both raw and manufactured, ebony ivory, and
eunuchs. [100] We may observe that the use and value of those effeminate
slaves gradually rose with the decline of the empire.

[Footnote 97: Tacit. Annal. xiii. 31. * Note: The customs (portoria)
existed in the times of the ancient kings of Rome. They were suppressed
in Italy, A. U. 694, by the Praetor, Cecilius Matellus Nepos. Augustus
only reestablished them. See note above.--W.]

[Footnote 98: See Pliny, (Hist. Natur. l. vi. c. 23, lxii. c. 18.) His
observation that the Indian commodities were sold at Rome at a hundred
times their original price, may give us some notion of the produce of
the customs, since that original price amounted to more than eight
hundred thousand pounds.]

[Footnote 99: The ancients were unacquainted with the art of cutting
diamonds.]

[Footnote 100: M. Bouchaud, in his treatise de l'Impot chez les
Romains, has transcribed this catalogue from the Digest, and attempts to
illustrate it by a very prolix commentary. * Note: In the Pandects, l.
39, t. 14, de Publican. Compare Cicero in Verrem. c. 72--74.--W.]

II. The excise, introduced by Augustus after the civil wars, was
extremely moderate, but it was general. It seldom exceeded one per
cent.;