3. Port or transit dues, called vectigalia,[1] were levied on all merchandise transported from one province to another for the sake of gain, that is, for resale at a profit; but for purely personal use residents were permitted to pass a limited quantity of goods free of tax. In this category may be included licenses for gold-mining, which cost the venturer about a guinea a year.[2] Taxes of this class were let out by public auction for a term of three years to those who bid highest for the concession of collecting them.[3] Export of gold from the Empire was forbidden, and those who had the opportunity, were exhorted to use every subterfuge in order to obtain it from the barbarians.[4]
4. A tax, peculiar in some respects to the Byzantine Empire, was the lustral collation or chrysargyron, a duty of the most comprehensive character on the profits of all commercial transactions.[5] Trade in every shape and form was subjected to it, not excepting the earnings of public prostitutes, beggars, and probably even of catamites.[6] The chrysargyron was collected every fourth year only, and for this reason, as it
- [Footnote: given, including professionals, such as physicians, painters, architects,
and geometers. I find no relief, however, in the case of lawyers.]
- ↑ Cod. Theod., IV, xii; Godefroy could only recover one Constitution of this title, but Haenel has been able to collect nine; thirteen are contained in the corresponding title of the Code, IV, lxi. On imported eunuchs 1/8 was paid; Cod., IV, xlii, 2.
- ↑ Ibid., X, xix, 3, 12.
- ↑ Ibid., IV, xii.
- ↑ Cod., IV, lxiii, 2; "subtili auferatur ingenio."
- ↑ Cod. Theod., XIII, i; Cod., XI, i. Evagrius (iii, 39), one of the nearest in time, is most copious on the subject of this tax. Cedrenus, Glykas, Zonaras ("an annual tribute!") evidently confused it with the poll-tax, but their remarks show that every animal useful to the farmer returned something to the revenue; a horse or an ox one shilling, an ass or a dog fourpence, etc.
- ↑ Evagrius alone mentions these; cf. Hist. August. Alexander, 34.
