revenues, which came chiefly from the royal domains. The kings became possessed of numerous villae scattered over the various districts of Gaul, and these properties were constantly augmented by purchases, donations, and advantageous exchanges. It is true that at the close of the Merovingian epoch the kings, in order to conciliate the great men, distributed among them, a large number of these royal estates, and the treasury became impoverished.
In the second place, the kings levied, at least at the beginning of the period, a number of taxes direct and indirect, which were adaptations of the former Roman imposts. They raised customs dues (telonea) on the goods which passed through certain towns, others on goods passing along the high-roads, by a public bridge, or transported by river, and on goods exposed for sale in market. But these dues were often made over to the churches, abbeys, or private persons. Sometimes also the king levied a tax on men who were not of free condition. This was the old capitatio humana. Those who were liable to it were inscribed in a public register known as the polyptychum. But this impost gradually lost its importance. The queen Rathildis, who lived at the period when Ebroin was Mayor of the Palace, and was herself a former Rreton slave, forbade the levying of this tax, because parents killed their children rather than pay for them. The tax became a customary due, of which the incidence was limited to certain persons; traces of it are found in the time of Charles the Great. Similarly the land tax, capitatio terrena, brought in less and less. Smitten by fear of the divine wrath Chilperic himself burned the registers in order to win back the favour of God. The capitatio terrena came to be limited to certain lands, as the capitatio humana was to certain persons. At the end of the Merovingian period it became necessary to create new imposts, and then the warriors were required to bring to the spring assembly gifts nominally voluntary, which soon became compulsory. The minting of coinage was in the earlier part of the period another source of revenue. For a long time the Frankish kings confined themselves to imitating the imperial currency; Theodebert was the first to place his name and effigy on the gold solidi. But his example was little followed. Down to the seventh century coinage was minted in Gaul bearing the names of former Emperors like Anastasius, Justin, and Justinian, whose types became permanent, or of contemporary Emperors like Heraclius (610-641). From the middle of the seventh century onward we find no coins bearing an effigy. On one side we find simply a man's name — that of the monetarius — on the other that of the locality. More than 800 local names are found on the Merovingian coins. Evidently coining had become almost entirely free again; minters, provided with a royal authorisation, went from place to place, converting ingots into specie. Charles the Great however resumed the exclusive right of coining.
