And better still, it is sufficient that he himself should work, or his steward, to communicate to the land his original independence.

As soon as he touches the soil, either personally or through his agent, he exempts four plowing-areas (quatre charrues), three hundred arpents,[1215] which in other hands would pay 2,000 francs tax.

Besides this he is exempt on "the woods, the meadows, the vines, the ponds and the enclosed land belonging to the chateau, of whatever extent it may be." Consequently, in Limousin and elsewhere, in regions principally devoted to pasturage or to vineyards, he takes care to manage himself, or to have managed, a certain portion of his domain; in this way he exempts it from the tax collector.[1216] There is yet more.
In Alsace, through an express covenant he does not pay a cent of tax.
Thus, after the assaults of four hundred and fifty years, taxation, the first of fiscal instrumentalities, the most burdensome of all, leaves feudal property almost intact.[1217]--For the last century, two new tools, the capitation-tax and the vingtiemes, appear more effective, and yet are but little more so .-- First of all, through a masterstroke of ecclesiastical diplomacy, the clergy diverts or weakens the blow.

As it is an organization, holding assemblies, it is able to negotiate with the king and buy itself off.

To avoid being taxed by others it taxes itself.
It makes it appear that its payments are not compulsory contributions, but a "free gift." It obtains then in exchange a mass of concessions, is able to diminish this gift, sometimes not to make it, in any event to reduce it to sixteen millions every five years, that is to say to a little more than three millions per annum.