TAILLE

In ancient French Jurisprudence, any imposition levied by the king or any other lord on his subjects. There is some obscurity about the derivation of this word. It is commonly deduced from talc a;, tallies, little pieces of wood with which reckonings were made. But whether these were not so called from their use in telling or counting (Germ, zahlen), does not appear. Again, it is apparently connected with the Germ, zoll, Engl, toll; but these words are derived by some, through the Ital. tolt a, from the Lat. tollere, to raise. Perhaps the whole series of words is from the same original root; but it is not easy to trace the affinities. The Royal Taille, in old France, which was the impost commonly understood under the general name, was a personal or rather mixed constitution, from persons not noble or ecclesiastical, or enjoying certain other exemptions imposed according to their supposed ability, measured by their goods. In the respect in which it fell on the agricultural cla , from which it was chiefly levied, it is described by Adam Smith as " a tax on the supposed profits of the farmer, which they estimate by the stock which he has upon the farm." (Book iii. ch. 2.) In Langue doc, and one or two other districts, the taille was real; i. e. imposed on land and goods. This tax was rendered annual and permanent in 1445. The "real" taille is now replaced by the " contribution foncidre," and the personal by the " contribution personnelle et mobiliaire." [s. 1218]