The system of farming the taxes, al though generally disapproved of, is still continued in some European states. Not many years ago the custom-house duties at Naples were farmed by private specu lators. For the character and effects of the system see Necker, De Administra tion des Finances.
In England the only tax that is farmed is that on post-horses. The excise duties were farmed for some years prior to 1683.
The Roman system of levying taxes, at least after the Republic had begun to acquire territory out of Italy, was by farming them out. In the later period of the Republic the farmers were from the body of the Equestrian order. Indivi duals used to form companies or associ ations for farming the taxes of a particu lar district : the taxes were let by the Censors for a period of five years. They were probably let to those who bid high est. These farmers were called Pub licani, and by the Greek writers Telonae (Tai4o4), which is rendered by Publicans in the English version of the New Testa ment,where they are appropriately classed with sinners, for they were accused of being often guilty of great extortion.
These tax-collectors in the province were however only the agents. The princi pals generally resided at Rome, where the affairs of each association (Societas) were managed by a director called a Ma gister. The individual members held shares (partes) in the undertaking. There was also a chief manager in the province or district of which the company farmed the tax, who was called Pro magister.
There are no means of knowing what proportions of the taxes collected reached the Roman Treasury (aerarium). Nume rous complaints of the rapacity of the Publicani or their agents occur in the classical writers. These Publicani were the monied men of the late Republic and the early Empire, and their aid was often required by the state for advances of money when the treasury was empty. Part of the maladministration probably came from the Publicani sub-letting the taxes, which seems to have been done, sometimes at least.