The Constituent Assembly abolished nearly all the taxes of the _ancien regime_. Almost the only taxes preserved were the stamp duty and that on the registration of acts (the old _controle_ and _centieme denier_), and these were completely reorganized; the customs were maintained only at the frontiers for foreign trade. In the establishment of new taxes the Assembly was influenced by two sentiments: the hatred which had been inspired by the former arbitrary taxation, and the influence of the school of the Physiocrats. Consequently it did away with indirect taxation on objects of consumption, and made the principal direct tax the tax on land. Next in importance were the _contribution personnelle et mobiliere_ and the _patentes_. The essential elements of the former were a sort of capitation-tax equivalent to three days' work, which was the distinctive and definite sign of a qualified citizen, and a tax on personal income, calculated according to the rent paid. The _patentes_ were paid by traders, and were also based on the amount of rent. These taxes, though considerably modified later, are still essentially the basis of the French system of direct taxation. The Constituent Assembly had on principle repudiated the tax on the gross income, much favoured under the _ancien regime_, which everybody had felt to be arbitrary and oppressive. The system of public contributions under the Convention was arbitrary and revolutionary, but the councils of the Directory, side by side with certain bad laws devised to tide over temporary crises, made some excellent laws on the subject of taxation. They resumed the regulation of the land tax, improving and partly altering it, and also dealt with the _contribution personnelle et mobiliere_, the _patentes_, and the stamp and registration duties. It was at this time, too, that the door and window tax, which still exists, was provisionally established; there was also a partial reappearance of indirect taxation, in particular the _octrois_ of the towns, which had been suppressed by the Constituent Assembly. Religious liberty.