ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the tax-gatherer as one of the causes of social revolt. The historical approach, which has here been adopted, is more suited to the reader who has made no deep study of the theory of currency. It has many pitfalls for the student or for the ordinary reader. The heavy oppression of taxation in the ancient world was due to its deflative effect on the currency more than to its direct effect on the wealth of the people. Money has a dominating influence upon our lives as individuals. The historical method of approach, though it cannot attain to the scientific rigour of the theoretical method, is much more easy of comprehension. The investigations of economic historians have scarcely begun. But it is possible to affirm that monetary influences were as powerful in the ancient world as they are to-day.
