TAKGUM. 39 TARIFF. committed to writing, for the same reason that the oral law itself was never intended to become a definitely formulated written code. In the course of time, however, both yielded to circum- stances and it was thought preferable to write them down rather than have them forgotten. Vet only a small portion of the immense mass of oral Targums that was produced survived. All that is now extant are three distinct Targums on the Pentateuch, one on the Prophets, an<l Tar- gums on the Hagiographa. viz. on Psalms. .Job, Proverbs, the five Megilloth (Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Esther, Ecclesiastes), on Chronicles, and on the apocryphal pieces of Esther. The Targums are of little help for purposes of te.vt criticism. Their main claim upon scholars rests upon the fact that in them there are to be found hints at the internal and external life of the people at the time wlien they were composed. The text is in a very corrupt condition, as might indeed be expected, since no proper care was taken to secure the purity of the text when the Aramaic began to decline as the spoken tongue of the .Jews. A translation of the Targums on the Pentateuch into English was made by Etheridge (London, 1862-65) . The Editio Princeps of Onk- elos (q.v.) is that of Bologna (1482), of the Tar- gum on the Former Prophets that of Leira (1494), and on the Latter Prophets that of Venice (1517-18). Targums on the Hagiographa appeared in the Rabbinic Bibles, but the Targum on Chronicles was not published until 1680. Re- cent editions of the Targum are: Pentateuch (Targum Onkelos)by A. Berliner (Berlin, 1884) ; Prophets (Prophets Chaldaice) by Lagarde (Leipzig, 1872); Hagiographa (Chaldaice) by the same (Leipzig, 1873). TABIFA, ta-re'fa. A seaport town of Spain, in the Province of Cadiz, on the coast, 21 miles west-southwest of Gibraltar (Map: Spain, C 4). It is the most southern town of Europe, is sur- rounded by tower-embattled walls, and communi- cates by a causeway with a small island, on which stand a fortress and lighthouse. The town is the most thoroughly Moorish in Andalusia; it is quadrangular in shape, and its streets are narrow and dark. Tunny and anchovy fisheries are actively carried on. Tarifa, the Carthaginian Josa, and the Roman Julia Traductn. received its present name from the Arabs, who are said to have called it after Tarif ibn Malik, who landed there to reconnoitre previous to the con- quest of the country. It was successfully de- fended in 1812 by 2500 troops (mostly British) against a French force of 10.000 men. under Victor and I^aval. Its population in 1900 was 11.730. TARIFF ( OF., Fr. tariff e. Fr. tarif, from Sp. tarifa. price-list, rate-book, from Ar. ta'rifa, ta'rif. notification, inventory, from 'ai-afa. to know). A schedule of duties or imposts levied upon goods as they pass from one State to an- other. A tariff may be levied upon foreign goods: ( 1 ) simply as a means of augmenting the reve- nues of a government, in which case it is a form of taxation (see Tax; Free Trade); or (21 as a means of retaliating upon foreign gov- ernments for similar restrictions imposed by them, in which ease it becomes an instrument of warfare serving a temporary purpose and de- signed in the end to secure commercial reci- procity; or (3) as a means of fostering arti- ficially particular industries by protecting them wholly or in part against foreign competition. See Peoiection. General History of Tawfp Legislation. Tarifl's for revenue seem to have been usual among the civilized nations of antiiiuity. Among the Greeks, especially the Athenians, a tariff was regularly resorted to as a means of revenue. This tariff was laid upon both exports and imports, and an additional tax was collected from vessels engaged in foreign traffic for the use of the harbors in which they ancliored. The regular export and import duty at Athens was 2 per cent., though in time of war, when the State was in pressing need of large sums of money, it was often considerably aug- mented. • Import and export duties were regularly levied by the Roman State also for revenue. The name for this tax used by the Latin writers is por- toritim, a name applied likewise to transit duties and bridge tolls. In the provinces and in newly conquered countries, duties were collected by Roman officials known as portitores and puhli- catii, and the sums were transmitted to the Ro- man treasurj'. In some cases, however, the central Government, as a particular favor, allowed the subject State to make its own customs laws, stipulating only that Roman citizens should be exempted from paying any duties that might be imposed. In B.C. 60 all porioria were abolished by the Lex Coecilia so far as concerned the ports of Italy; but Julius C«sar soon after restored them. Augustus Ca>sar still further increased the number of dutiable commodities, and a long list of those which under the later emperors were subject to the payment of a duty is given in the Digest of Ju.stinian. The rate of duty at Rome seems generally to have been 5 per cent., but under the later emperors a duty of 12% per cent, (octava) is mentioned as the ordinary tax on imports. In the Middle Ages the feudal lords individu- ally claimed and exercised the right of imposing transit duties levied on all goods that passed by or through their possessions. Hence, says a recent writer, "the rivers and high-roads were fairly lined with custom-houses and toll-gates." When feudalism gave way to monarchy and strong central government, the kings transferred to themselves the rights that had previously been exercised by the barons. They, too, erected custom-houses at all their frontiers, and even on the boundaries of their different provinces. So imiversal did these duties, local and national, become, that every Continental nation was cov- ered with a network of customs lines. Various cities also had their local customs duties, of which the octroi collected at the entrance to sev- eral cities on the Continent, notablj' Paris, is a survival. In England we first hear of a tariff for reve- nue under King Ethelred in or about the year 980. At that time duties on ships and goods were levied and ordered to be paid at Billings- gate, London. They were first acknowledged as a part of the King's revenue in the reign of Edward I., who received them by regular grant from Parliament, if we may accept the assertion of Sir Edward Coke, quoted by Blackstone. But wool, skins, and leather were taxable at the royal
