After this tenth had been exacted on the corn, they were obliged to sell another tenth, or a more considerable part, to the praetor, at a price estimated by himself.

Even what remained was still subject to be bought up in the some manner, and at the pleasure of the same magistrate, who, independent of these taxes and purchases, received for the use of his household a large portion of the corn of the province.

The most valuable of the pasture grounds were also reserved to the public, and a considerable revenue was thence derived, which they called _scriptura_.
The state made a monopoly of almost the whole produce of the land, which paid several taxes, and was further enhanced by passing through several hands before it came to popular consumption.
The third great branch of the Roman revenue was the _portorium_, which did not differ from those impositions which we now call customs and duties of export and import.
This was the ordinary revenue; besides which there were occasional impositions for shipping, for military stores and provisions, and for defraying the expense of the praetor and his legates on the various circuits they made for the administration of the province.

This last charge became frequently a means of great oppression, and several ways were from time to time attempted, but with little effect, to confine it within reasonable bounds.[25] Amongst the extraordinary impositions must be reckoned the obligation they laid on the provincials to labor at the public works, after the manner of what the French call the _corvee_, and we term statute-labor.
As the provinces, burdened by the ordinary charges, were often in no condition of levying these occasional taxes, they were obliged to borrow at interest.

Interest was then to communities at the same exorbitant rate as to individuals.