Calls to mind my favorite Colbert‡ quote: "The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to procure the largest quantity of feathers with the least possible amount of hissing."

Taxes were privatized under the ancien régime (a tax collector committed to handing over a fixed sum and then was welcome to use whatever means he wished to go collected it -- and was free to keep the profits). The integration of many big businesses with government in the US (not just military-industrial but telecoms, banking etc) through regulatory capture and quid pro quo really resembles this system.

‡ Jean-Baptiste Colbert, I mean, Louis XIV's finance minister after the 30 years war. Probably more popular around here for the story that "laissez-faire economics" came from a conversation he had.