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already mentioned. Part of what is paid by the land
(in money or work) for the construction of roads and
other matters is portioned out on the “mantal”; but
the old tax paid to the Crown, the so-called “ordinary
rent,” is a fixed amount, which the Swedish
fundamental laws have promised shall never be changed.
This “ordinary rent” is reckoned according to particular
units, called rouble taxes. The number of these
units for each farm or “hemman” has a definite relation
to the “mantal,” but not the same in different parts of
the country; the survey and mapping-out of the land
according to the laws of enclosure has been done and
is still going on in different periods; and a valuation
of the land for taxation purposes has been made at
these intervals according to different methods in the
different provinces. A permanent land tax necessarily
influences the value of land, and becomes therefore, in
fact, a mortgage belonging to the government instead
of a real tax. The Finnish legislators seem to have
recognised this simple truth better than modern
legislators in several other countries. The permanent
land tax, the most important of the direct taxes
paid to the State, has therefore not been touched.
What the landowners pay besides this tax, such
as labour for the construction and maintenance of
roads, the carrying of the post, and other matters, is
estimated at a total value of about 4 million marks.
The so-called rents of the Crown, as well as the less
valuable Crown tithes (that is, the two-thirds of the
old tithes which at the Reformation were given
to the State), make, together with other small
payments, a total of about 3½ million marks. If we
add to this about 2 millions to the Church and one
million to the Communes, we have a total land tax of
more than 10 million marks, which is not, however, as
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