The custom of farming the taxes and of taking these in kind, though in theory workable enough, became, in fact, too often an engine of ruinous exactions ; for, where the crops could not be cut until the tax-assessor reformer.
It was the cap ricious and uncertain character of the Ottoman Government, rather than any conscious oppression, that provoked misery and discontent.  The custom of farming the taxes and of taking these in kind, though in theory workable enough, became, in fact, too often an engine of ruinous exactions ; for, where the crops could not be cut until the tax-assessor reformer.  ...