CHAPTER VIII

REVENUE OFFICERS: PROPRIETARY

LORD BALTIMORE'S revenue, like that of his province, consisted of
duties collected at the ports and of moneys and tobaccos payable
within the colony. Similarly his revenue establishment resembled
the provincial system. There was an official for the receipt and
disbursement of funds (the Agent and Receiver General); there
were Naval Officers to collect the duties; and there were other
functionaries, under various titles, to take up the internal revenue.
But just as the proprietary income was more complex in its nature,
so the mechanism for collecting it was more elaborate.

1. THE PROPRIETARY REVENUE.

Baltimore's income was of two unequal parts, the one possessed
by him as head of government, the other his private revenue by
gift either of the sovereign or of the Maryland Assembly. ¹ The
former part was crown property during the quarter-century of
royal administration. The latter part was constantly in Baltimore's
possession save for eight years, from the summer of 1699 to that
of 1707, when he leased the greater portion of it to James Heath
and Richard Bennett III.

His Lordship's revenue as head of government consisted of:
(1) the twelve pence sterling per hogshead for support of govern-
ment, granted in April, 1671, (2) two duties for the Governor's
support (enacted under the crown; proprietary after 1715), (3)
all fines, forfeitures, and amercements, except a few otherwise
disposed of, (4) such license fines as he might impose and suc-
cessfully collect, and (5) waifs, strays, and deodands.

The twelve pence and the two duties for the Governor's support
were always collected by the Naval Officers who, after 1715, paid
them to His Lordship's Agent and Receiver General, taking a
commission of two percent. Similarly the fines, forfeitures, and

¹ The best account of this revenue in the second proprietary period is to be
found in Barker, op. cit., which contains (pp. 380-81) tables of figures based on
the Agents' accounts preserved among the Calvert Papers at the Maryland Historical
Society. Cf. note 17 below.

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