My grandfather told me that the tax system in his town (Suchowola) involved an auction for the right to collect taxes based on animals slaughtered.  An amount to be levied by type of animal was set and the bidders bet that they could collect more from the year's take from the shokets than they had bid.  The town got their money up front from the winning bidder who then had to collect her/his due from each slaughterer during the year. I guess the shokets passed the tax onto their customers.

Lee Jaffe
JAFFE/STEJNSAPIR
JOROFF/SCHWARTZ/KOSHKIN