and that the first charters of
freedom which were obligatory and binding contracts between the King and
the people, date their origin. Besides the annual fines due to the King
and the feudal lords, and in addition to the general subsidies, such as
the quit-rent and the tithes, these communities had to provide for the
repair of the walls or ramparts, for the paving of the streets, the
cleaning of the pits, the watch on the city gates, and the various
expenses of local administration.

Louis le Gros endeavoured to make a re-arrangement of the taxes, and to
establish them on a definite basis. By his orders a new register of the
lands throughout the kingdom was commenced, but various calamities caused
this useful measure to be suspended. In 1149, Louis le Jeune, in
consequence of a disaster which had befallen the Crusaders, did what none
of his predecessors had dared to attempt: he exacted from all his subjects
a sol per pound on their income. This tax, which amounted to a twentieth
part of income, was paid even by the Church, which, for example's sake,
did not take advantage of its immunities. Forty years later, at a council,
or _great parliament_, called by Philip Augustus, a new crusade was
decided upon; and, under the name of Saladin's tithe, an annual tax was
imposed on all property, whether landed or personal, of all who did not
take up the cross to go to the Holy Land. The nobility, however, so
violently resisted this, that the King was obliged to substitute for it a
general tax, which, although it was still more productive, was less
offensive in its mode of collection.

On returning to France in 1191, Philip Augustus rated and taxed every
one--nobility, bourgeois, and clergy--in order to prosecute the great wars
in which he was engaged, and to provide for the first paid troops ever
known in France. He began by confirming the enormous confiscations of the
properties of the Jews, who had been banished from the kingdom, and
afterwards sold a temporary permission to some of the richest of them to
return.

The Jews at that time were the only possessors of available funds, as they
were the only people who trafficked, and who lent money on interest. On
this account the Government were glad to recall them, so as to have at
hand a valuable resource which it could always make use of. As the King
could not on his own authority levy taxes upon the vassals of feudal
lords, on emergencies he convoked the barons, who discussed