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FARM

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 180 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FARM , in the most generally used sense, a portion of See also:

land leased or held for the purpose of See also:agriculture; hence " farming" is See also:equivalent to the pursuit of agriculture, and " See also:farmer " to an agriculturist. This meaning is comparatively See also:modern. The origin of the word has perhaps been complicated by an Anglo-Saxon feorm, meaning provisions or See also:food See also:supply, and more particularly a See also:payment of provisions for the sustenance of the See also:king, the cyninges feorm. See also:Ili Domesday this appears as a food See also:rent: firma unius noctis or diei. According to the New See also:English See also:Dictionary there is no satisfactory See also:Teutonic origin for the word. It has, however, been sometimes connected with a word which appears in the older forms of some Teutonic See also:languages, meaning " See also:life." The See also:present See also:form " farm " certainly comes, through the See also:French ferme, from the See also:medieval See also:Lat. firma (firmus, fixed), a fixed or certain payment in See also:money or See also:kind. The Anglo-Saxon feorm may be not an See also:original Teutonic word but an See also:early See also:adaptation of the Latin. The feorm, originally a tax, seems, as the king " booked " his land, to have become a rent (see F. W. See also:Maitland, Domesday See also:Book and After, 1897, p. 236 if., and J. H.

See also:

Round, Feudal See also:England, 1895, p. 109 ff.). The word firma is thus used of the See also:composition paid by the See also:sheriff in respect of the dues to be collected from the See also:shire. From the use of the word for thefixed sum paid as rent for a portion of land leased for cultivation, " farm was applied to the land itself, whether held on See also:lease or otherwise, and always with the meaning of agricultural land. The aspect of the fixity of the sum paid leads to a secondary meaning, that of a certain sum paid by a taxable See also:person, community, See also:state, &c., in respect of the taxes or dues that will be imposed, or to such a sum paid as a rent by a contractor for the right of See also:collecting such taxes. This method of indirect collection of the See also:revenue by contractors instead of directly by the officials of the state is.that known as " farming the taxes." The See also:system is best known through the publican of See also:Rome, -who formed companies or syndicates to farm not only the indirect See also:taxation of the state, but also other See also:sources of the state revenues, such as mines, See also:fisheries, &c. (see See also:PUBLICANI). In monarchical See also:Europe, which See also:grew out of the ruins of the See also:Roman See also:empire, the revenue was almost universally farmed, but the system was gradually narrowed down until only indirect taxes became the subject of farming. See also:France from the 16th to the 18th centuries is the most interesting modern example. Owing to the hopeless See also:condition of its revenues, the French See also:government was continually in a state of anticipating its resources; and was thus entirely in the hands of financiers. In 1681 the indirect taxes were farmed collectively to a single See also:company of See also:forty capitalists (ferme generale), increased to sixty in 1755, and reduced to the original number in 1780. These farmers-See also:general were appointed by the king for six years, and paid an See also:annual fixed sum every See also:year in advance.

The taxes which they, collected were the customs (douanes or traites), the See also:

gabelle or See also:salt tax, See also:local taxes or octrois (entrees, &c.), and various smaller taxes. They were under the management of a controller-general, who had a central See also:office in See also:Paris. The office of farmer-general was the See also:object of keen competition, notwithstanding that the successful candidates had to See also:share a considerable See also:part of the profits of the See also:post with ministers, courtiers, favourites, and even the See also:sovereign, in the shape of gifts (troupes) and See also:pensions. The rapacity of the farmers-general was proverbial, and the loss to the revenue by the system was See also:great, while very considerable hardships were inflicted on the poorer contributors by the unscrupulous methods of collection practised by the underlings of the farmers. In addition, the unpopular nature of the taxes caused deep discontent, and the detestation in which the farmers-general were held culminated in the 'See also:execution of See also:thirty-two of them during the French Revolution and the sweeping away of the system. See also AGRICULTURE, See also:DAIRY AND DAIRY-FARMING, See also:FRUIT AND See also:FLOWER FARMING, &C.

End of Article: FARM

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