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POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE GREEKS.Beside the taxes already enumerated, there were otherparticular ones on various articles of luxury. Thus in Lyciaa tax was paid for wearing false hair; 1 in Ephesus, ornaments of gold were prohibited, and the women ordered togive them up to the state. Examples are preserved byAristotle, where in cases of necessity, single cities adoptedvarious extraordinary measures, such as the sale of the publicestates,* the sale of the privilege of citizenship,taxes onseveral professions and employments/ 3as of andsoothsayer^quacks, and monopolies, of which the state possessed itselffor a season.In all the Grecian cities, the indirect taxes, especiallytheduties, were most probablyfarmed. The custom of farmingthe revenue prevailedin a much greater degreein severalof the monarchical states of antiquity ;in the Grecian reitpublics, seems to have been restricted to the indirecttaxes. It is generally known, that in Athens the duties werefarmed ;but the same was the case in inByzantium, Mace4donia, and in other places.Demosthenes distinguishesthree classes of personswho were interested in this transaction ;those who rented this branch of the revenue ;theirbondsmen ;and the inspectors and the receivers.* It wouldbe superfluous to speak of the great evils of this arrangement ;but has it not been preserved by much largerstatesin modern Europe?One important questionstill remains :In the Grecian cities, who had the rightof fixingthe taxes ? The politicalscience of the moderns has regardedit as one of the mostcharacteristic of a free conimportant points, as the peculiarstitution, that the government should not be permitted toimpose taxes without the consent of the people, given digovernorappointed by Alexander, and which required that a tithe should bepaid of every thing brought into the city.Aristot. Op. ii. p. 395.1Aristot (Econ. ii.Op. ii. p. 385. .,.-,,., i2By the Byzantians. Aristot. 1. c. p. 389. That which follo-ws is also relatedby him in the same place.8A general income tax of 10 per cent on all employments, was laid by JangTachus in Egypt, at the instance of Chabrias. Aristot 1. c. p. 394. Thoughexecuted in Egypt, the idea was that of a Greek; and Pitt must resignhisclaim to the invention of the Income tax.4 See the passagescited above, which prove this.5 Demosth. Op. L p. 745. r&oc *p&p*voto rj 1-wvnfffuvdoG, ? l^wy.Those who rented the taxes of the state, were of course obliged to procuresafe bondsmen.