The recommencement of hostilities between England and France in 1370 unfortunately interrupted the progressive and regular course of these financial improvements. The States-General, to whom the King was obliged to appeal for assistance in order to carry on the war, decided that salt should be taxed one sol per pound, wine by wholesale a thirteenth of its value, and by retail a fourth; that a _fouage_, or hearth tax, of six francs should be established in towns, and of two francs in the country,[*] and that a duty should be levied in walled towns on the entrance of all wine. The produce of the salt tax was devoted to the special use of the King. Each district farmed its excise and its salt tax, under the superintendence of clerks appointed by the King, who regulated the assessment and the fines, and who adjudicated in the first instance in all cases of dispute. Tax-gatherers were chosen by the inhabitants of each locality, but the chief officers of finance, four in number, were appointed by the King. This administrative organization, created on a sound basis, marked the establishment of a complete financial system. The Assembly, which thus transferred the administration of all matters of taxation from the people at large to the King, did not consist of a combination of the three estates, but simply of persons of position--namely, prelates, nobles, and bourgeois of Paris, in addition to the leading magistrates of the kingdom. [Footnote *: This is the origin of the saying "smoke farthing."] The following extract from the accounts of the 15th November, 1372, is interesting, inasmuch as it represents the actual budget of France under Charles V.:-- Article 18. Assigned for the payment of men at arms ...... 50,000 francs. " 19. For payment of men at arms and crossbowmen newly formed .............................. 42,000 " " " For sea purposes ............................. 8,000 " " 20. For the King's palace ........................ 6,000 " " " To place in the King's coffers................ 5,000 " " 21. It pleases the King that the receiver-general should have monthly for matters that daily arise in the chamber ...................... 10,000 " " " For the payment of debts ..................... 10,000 " Total ..................... 131,000 " [Illustration: Settlement of Accounts by the Brothers of Cherité-Dieu of the Recovery of Roles A miniature from the "_Livre des Comptes_" of the Society (Fifteenth Century).] Thus, for the year, 131,000 francs in _écus d'or_ representing in present money about 12,000,000 francs, were appropriated to the expenses of the State, out of which the sum of 5,000 francs, equal to 275,000 francs of present money, was devoted to what we may call the _Civil List_.