[Illustration:  Fig. 272.—­View of the ancient Pont aux Changeurs.—­From an Engraving of the Topography of Paris, in the Cabinet des Estampes, of the National Library.]

The tax collectors (maltotiers, a name derived from the Italian mala tolta, unjust tax), receivers, or farmers of taxes, paid dearly for exercising their calling, which was always a dishonourable one, and was at times exercised with a great amount of harshness and even of cruelty.  The treasury required a certain number of deniers, oboles, or pittes (a small coin varying in value in each province) to be paid by these men for each bank operation they effected, and for every pound in value of merchandise they sold, for they and the Jews were permitted to carry on trades of all kinds without being subject to any kind of rates, taxes, work, military service, or municipal dues.

Philippe le Bel, owing to his interminable wars against the King of Castille, and against England, Germany, and Flanders, was frequently so embarrassed as to be obliged to resort to extraordinary subsidies in order to carry them on.  In 1295, he called upon his subjects for a forced loan, and soon after he shamelessly required them to pay the one-hundredth part of their incomes, and after but a short interval he demanded another fiftieth part.  The king assumed the exclusive right to debase the value of the coinage, which caused him to be commonly called the base coiner, and no sovereign ever coined a greater quantity of base money.  He changed the standard or name of current coin with a view to counterbalance the mischief arising from the illicit coinage of the nobles, and especially to baffle the base traffic of the Jews and Lombards, who occasionally would obtain possession of a great part of the coin, and mutilate each piece before restoring it to circulation; in this way they upset the whole monetary economy of the realm, and secured immense profits to themselves (Figs. 273 to 278).

In 1303, the aide au leur, which was afterwards called the aide de l’ost, or the army tax, was invented by Philippe le Bel for raising an army without opening his purse.  It was levied without distinction upon dukes, counts, barons, ladies, damsels, archbishops, bishops, abbots, chapters, colleges, and, in fact, upon all classes, whether noble or not.  Nobles were bound to furnish one knight mounted, equipped, and in full armour, for every five hundred marks of land which they possessed; those who were not nobles had to furnish six foot-soldiers for every hundred households.  By another enactment of this king the privilege was granted of paying money instead of complying with these demands for men, and a sum of 100 livres—­about 10,000 francs of present currency—­was exacted for each armed knight; and two sols—­about ten francs per diem—­for each soldier which any one failed to furnish.  An outcry was raised throughout France at this proceeding,