In order to facilitate the collection of the taxes, Solomon divided the kingdom into twelve districts, each of which was placed in charge of a collector; these regions did not coincide with the existing tribal boundaries, but the extent of each was determined by the wealth of the lands contained within it.  While one district included the whole of Mount Ephraim, another was limited to the stronghold of Mahanaim and its suburbs.  Mahanaim was at one time the capital of Israel, and had played an important part in the life of David:  it held the key to the regions beyond Jordan, and its ruler was a person of such influence that it was not considered prudent to leave him too well provided with funds.  By thus obliterating the old tribal boundaries, Solomon doubtless hoped to destroy, or at any rate greatly weaken, that clannish spirit which showed itself with such alarming violence at the time of the revolt of Sheba, and to weld into a single homogeneous mass the various Hebrew and Canaanitish elements of which the people of Israel were composed.*

* 1 Kings iv. 7-19, where a list of the districts is given; the fact that two of Solomon’s sons-in-law appear in it, show that the document from which it is taken gave the staff of collectors in office at the close of his reign.

Each of these provinces was obliged, during one month in each year, to provide for the wants of “the king and his household,” or, in other words, the requirements of the central government.  A large part of these contributions went to supply the king’s table; the daily consumption at the court was—­thirty measures of fine flour, sixty measures of meal, ten fat oxen, twenty oxen out of the pastures, a hundred sheep, besides all kinds of game and fatted fowl:  nor need we be surprised at these figures, for in a country where, and at a time when money was unknown, the king was obliged to supply food to all his dependents, the greater part of their emoluments consisting of these payments in kind.  The tax-collectors had also to provide fodder for the horses reserved for military purposes:  there were forty thousand of these, and twelve thousand charioteers, and barley and straw had to be forthcoming either in Jerusalem itself or in one or other of the garrison towns amongst which they were distributed.* The levying of tolls on caravans passing through the country completed the king’s fiscal operations which were based on the systems prevailing in neighbouring States, especially that of Egypt.**

* 1 Kings iv. 26-28; the complementary passages in 1 Kings x. 26 and 2 Chron. i. 14 give the number of chariots as 1400 and of charioteers at 12,000.  The numbers do not seem excessive for a kingdom which embraced the whole south of Palestine, when we reflect that, at the battle of Qodshu, Northern Syria was able to put between 2500 and 3000 chariots into the field against Ramses II.  The Hebrew chariots probably carried at least three men, like those of the Hittites and Assyrians.

     ** 1 Kings x. 15, where mention is made of the amount which
     the chapmen brought, and the traffic of the merchants
     contains an allusion to these tolls.