THE MARYLAND PATRONAGE 11

principal a salary in sterling. The Commissary General and
Attorney General received tobacco fees. ¹

Within the provincial revenue establishment the Treasurers
were allowed commissions, in sterling and currency. The Naval
Officers received commissions on duties they collected and fees
for entering and clearing ships, both in money. The sheriffs had
a salary and fees in tobacco and commissions on the moneys and
tobaccos they collected.

The Proprietary Agent's revenue, entirely in money, comprised
3. commission on part of Lord Baltimore's income and a salary
for receiving the rest of it. The Judges of the Land Office and
the Examiner General had tobacco fees. The Surveyors General
got a portion of their deputies' profits in tobacco. The Rent Roll
Keepers, after 1733, had five percent of the quit-rents, collected
in sterling.

All members of the crown revenue establishment had salaries
in sterling except the Deputy Auditor, who took a commission
on the accounts he passed. In addition, Collectors were allowed
twenty percent of the plantation duty and, together with the
Comptrollers, took fees in sterling (later currency) for entering
and clearing vessels.

Salaries were paid at regular intervals, usually semi-annual or
quarterly. Commissions were taken whenever moneys or tobaccos
were received. Fees in money were paid at once. But the more
numerous tobacco fees had to be collected the following summer
by the sheriff, pursuant to accounts rendered him by the various
officials.

These tobacco fees had appeared in the seventeenth century
when tobacco was the staple of the province and when money of
every kind was scarce; but they persisted after planting had been

¹ Members of the central governing body whose offices were not places of
profit were paid out of poll taxes in tobacco. County magistrates received a daily
allowance when actually sitting as the county court. This allowance, with other
local expenses, was included in the county levy, which was drawn up each year
by the county clerk, passed by the justices, and collected by the sheriff Similarly
provincial councillors, judges, assemblymen, and military officers received an
allowance for days actually in the public service. This was included, with other
provincial expenses, in the public levy, which was drawn up by a committee of
accounts, passed by the Assembly, and collected by the sheriffs. Provincial tobaccos
so collected were handled by His Lordship's Agent and Receiver in the earlier
proprietary period and thereafter by the Public Treasurers. Normally a journal of
accounts passed the Assembly once a year, but disputes over payment of the
Council and of their clerk twice long delayed its passage.