even than the English
had been. Charles V., who was celebrated for his justice and for his
economical and provident habits, was alone capable of establishing order
in the midst of such general confusion. Supported by the vote of the
Assembly held at Compiegne in 1367, he remitted a moiety of the salt tax
and diminished the number of the treasury agents, reduced their wages, and
curtailed their privileges. He inquired into all cases of embezzlement, so
as to put a stop to fraud; and he insisted that the accounts of the public
expenditure in its several departments should be annually audited. He
protected commerce, facilitated exchanges, and reduced, as far as
possible, the rates and taxes on woven articles and manufactured goods. He
permitted Jews to hold funded property, and invited foreign merchants to
trade with the country. For the first time he required all gold and silver
articles to be stamped, and called in all the old gold and silver coins,
in order that by a new and uniform issue the value of money might no
longer be fictitious or variable. For more than a century coins had so
often changed in name, value, and standard weight, that in an edict of
King John we read, "It was difficult for a man when paying money in the
ordinary course to know what he was about from one day to another."

The recommencement of hostilities between England and France in 1370
unfortunately interrupted the progressive and regular course of these
financial improvements. The States-General, to whom the King was obliged
to appeal for assistance in order to carry on the war, decided that salt
should be taxed one sol per pound, wine by wholesale a thirteenth of its
value, and by retail a fourth; that a _fouage_, or hearth tax, of six
francs should be established in towns, and of two francs in the
country,[*] and that a duty should be levied in walled towns on the
entrance of all wine. The produce of the salt tax was devoted to the
special use of the King. Each district farmed its excise and its salt tax,
under the superintendence of clerks appointed by the King, who regulated
the assessment and the fines, and who adjudicated in the first instance in
all cases of dispute. Tax-gatherers were chosen by the inhabitants of each
locality, but the chief officers of finance, four in number, were
appointed by the King. This administrative organization, created on a
sound basis, marked the establishment of a complete financial system. The
Assembly, wh