In cases of need a contribution (-tributum-) was imposed, which was looked upon, however, as a forced loan and was repaid when the times improved; whether it fell upon the burgesses generally, or only upon the -- metoeci--, cannot be determined; the latter supposition is, however, the more probable.
The king managed the finances.

The property of the state, however, was not identified with the private property of the king; which, judging from the statements regarding the extensive landed possessions of the last Roman royal house, the Tarquins, must have been considerable.

The ground won by arms, in particular, appears to have been constantly regarded as property of the state.

Whether and how far the king was restricted by use and wont in the administration of the public property, can no longer be ascertained; only the subsequent course of things shows that the burgesses can never have been consulted regarding it, whereas it was probably the custom to consult the senate in the imposition of the -tributum- and in the distribution of the lands won in war.
Rights of the Burgesses The Roman burgesses, however, do not merely come into view as furnishing contributions and rendering service; they also bore a part in the public government.

For this purpose all the members of the community (with the exception of the women, and the children still incapable of bearing arms)--in other words, the "spearmen" (-quirites-) as in addressing them they were designated--assembled at the seat of justice, when the king convoked them for the purpose of making a communication (-conventio-, -contio-) or formally bade them meet (-comitia-) for the third week (-in trinum noundinum-), to consult them by curies.