Although the taxes remain the same in principle, a comparison with the former state of things shows the difference in the methods of assessment and collection to be so great as to amount to a revolution. Then, as now, the Government in the Soudan was, according to the general rule in the East, the admitted owner of the soil, and the cultivator had to pay a tax amounting to one-tenth of the produce for its use. The actual sum to be paid included all other taxes, as house-tax, animal-tax, and so on. Each district was rated at so much in the Budget; this sum was divided among the villages and communes until the individual cultivator was reached. The nomad and other tribes which did not cultivate the soil were assessed at an annual tribute, according to their wealth in camels, cattle, and horses. In Berber and Dongola the tax was not on the produce of the land, but on the instruments of irrigation. It varied according to the instrument and according to the quality of land. One sakieh was calculated to be capable of watering 8 acres, and if more land was cultivated an increase was made in the tax. It has already been mentioned how these water-wheels were often taxed in a sum far beyond their possible earning capacity. It was the same with the assessment of the districts and the tribute of the tribes. The official estimates were seldom or never realized as far as the public exchequer was concerned (although the bullying tax-collectors took much more for themselves). Arrears accumulated, in spite of every effort, and became a direct incentive to discontent and revolt. In the year 1879 the deficiencies of the amounts actually received below those estimated ranged in the different provinces from 10 to 60 per cent. The figures of the Budget were, in fact, pure fancy, especially when the country was disturbed. But the thing was even worse than it looked. Districts and tribes, though they might not pay all that was asked, paid a great deal more than they could afford, and consequently, as the money had to be found somehow, they found it by indulging in the only prosperous trade—that of slavery. In other words, the Soudan lived largely by expending its capital. Owing to the alteration in the boundaries of the Soudan, it is somewhat difficult to calculate what the amount raised in taxation from the present territories amounted to. As nearly as can be made out, it was about £360,000 a year nominally, with a nominal deficit on the whole administration in the same provinces of £70,000 a year. Absolutely nothing was spent in the development of the country; salaries, rations, and clothes for the army of occupation made up almost the whole of the expenditure. As compared to this, the actual sums raised in the Soudan by taxation during the last four years have been as follows: £E. 1900 95,000 1901 155,000 1902 190,000 1903 200,000[7]