MANNERS AND CUSTOMS
levy on the first grade being five sheaves per tan (hulled grain must always be understood); that on the second, four sheaves that on the third, three sheaves, and that on the fourth, one and a half sheaves. This was called a tax of one-fifth or twenty per cent, the produce of the best land being then estimated at twenty-five sheaves. In fact, the tax was nearly three and a half times greater in the reign of the Emperor Saga (810-823) than it had been in that of the Emperor Kotoku (645-654). In the twelfth century the tax had become twenty-five per cent, and there was a further levy of ten per cent of the remaining grain, one-third of this extra impost being destined for the support of the governors in the provinces. Hence, at that time, the total grain tax on the land was thirty-two and a half per cent of the gross produce, the central government taking thirty per cent and the local government two and a half per cent.
It is not to be inferred that grain crops alone were taxed, other produce escaping. In addition to the levy of grain, people had to pay chōbutsu (prepared articles); as silk fabrics, pongee, and cotton cloth.[1] These were assessed at the rate of one piece of silk fabric, three pieces of pongee, and four pieces of cotton cloth per chō of land (the piece in every case being ten feet long and two and a half feet wide). Each of these imposts represented a monetary value of from thirty
- ↑ See Appendix, note 20.
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