The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c11.t16.8

c11.t16.8

Budget-making is an essentially modern institution. It is only since the time of Napoleon that regular estimates of receipts and expenditures have been yearly prepared in France.¹ And in spite of the comparative abundance of reliable data no ingenuity of modern research has been able to reconstruct the sheet of liabilities and assets for any period of the Roman Empire. But the administrative history of Hindu India is yet in its beginnings. It is out of the question therefore to attempt such wide guesses about the annual expenses even of the Maurya Empire (B. C. 322—185) for which information is more plentiful than for others as have been done in regard to the Athenian state by Bökh² or about the total revenues as have been done in regard to the Roman Empire by Gibbon and Guizot.³ Nor of course is it possible to test the fiscal policy of Hindu states by the modern canons of taxation, especially on the complicated questions of justice, faculty, i. e. ability to pay, or equality of assessment.