Chapter 108

Taxation

Taxation: taxes, tolls, tithes and duties; who should bear them and how they are levied; their justice, burden and effects on wealth and liberty.

334 passages · 172 principal · Covers the 49 volumes of primary texts

Taxation covers everything a people pays to those who govern them, whether it is called a tax, a toll, a tithe, a duty or a tribute. It raises several questions at once. Who may lay a tax, and who must bear it? How should it be assessed and collected? What does it do to a nation’s wealth and to its liberty? The idea earns its place among these books because the question of what is owed to the public purse cuts across economics, constitutional law, religion and moral philosophy. Adam Smith gives a whole book of his inquiry to the expenses of the sovereign, the methods of contribution and the public debt^1,2. Emerson finds in a tax the plainest case of one man’s will imposed upon another’s labour³. Burke goes further and declares that the revenue is the state itself⁴.

On the necessity of taxes there is little dispute. Washington tells his countrymen that debts cannot be paid without revenue, nor revenue raised without taxes. Every tax, he admits, will be inconvenient, and so citizens should accept the government’s choice of taxes rather than leave the burden to posterity⁵. Smith concludes that the state’s expense must finally be met by taxes. He explains that every tax falls at last on one of three funds, rent, profit or wages^6,7, and since the annual produce of a country is the source of all of them, policy should aim to enlarge it⁸. Even the reformers do not imagine a state without revenue. Penn proposes that a nation’s superfluities be made a perpetual public fund, so that taxes on lawful things could cease and pride be taxed instead^9,10. Mill uses bad taxes as an example of the errors governments make, and adds that such errors are no reason to forbid taxing altogether¹¹. The ancients raise a question that is less about whether to tax than about how revenue should be used. Themistocles persuades Athens to build a fleet with its silver rather than divide it among the citizens¹². Trajan allows a city to rebuild its bath only if no new tax is laid and no necessary revenue is diverted¹³.

Necessity does not make the burden welcome. Pascal’s Daniel describes the tyrant as a “raiser of taxes”¹⁴. Plutarch shows the triumvirs heaping every kind of imposition on Rome to fund their pleasures and their wars¹⁵. Machiavelli laments the exactions foreigners laid on Italy¹⁶, and Milton, as Bagehot reports him, condemns a magistracy that answered the demand for better laws with taxes levied yearly, monthly and weekly¹⁷. Burns hears poor men over their ale wondering what new tax is coming¹⁸. Against this whole tradition Smith offers a striking reversal. A poll-tax may have been called a badge of slavery, he says, but every tax is to the person who pays it a badge of liberty, because it shows that he is subject to government and yet has some property of his own¹⁹.

That reversal leads to the great modern controversy over consent. Winthrop counts among the liberties of freemen that no tax may be imposed on their persons or estates without their consent in the General Assembly²⁰. The Instrument of Government likewise forbids any charge except by common consent in Parliament²¹. The editors of Milton recall that the men who took arms against Charles I refused his ship-money as illegal²², although Milton himself sets the liberty to know and argue above such immunities²³. Dryden argues that government by consent suits an island, since absolute rulers might levy heavier taxes but would leave their people poor²⁴. The American documents make the principle a cause of revolution. They insist that no tax may be laid without the consent of the colonists’ own representatives, and they call the Stamp Act both subversive of liberty and impossible to pay for want of specie^25,26,27. Franklin believed his plan of union would have removed the very pretext for taxing America²⁸. Emerson reads both ship-money and the American war as quarrels over property and taxation²⁹, and in his parable of Laban and Jacob he concludes that those who pay for the defence of property should vote on its protection³⁰. Burke turns the argument the other way. He mocks the French Assembly for making the payment of direct tax a qualification for voting, which contradicts its own doctrine of equal rights³¹, and he warns that a constitution founded on contribution depends wholly on how that contribution is apportioned³².

Once consent was secured, the next question was who held the taxing power. The Connecticut Orders place the power of levies in the General Court alone³³. The Articles of Confederation leave it to the states to raise their shares of the common treasury³⁴. The Constitution gives Congress the power to lay taxes, duties, imposts and excises, requires revenue bills to begin in the House, apportions direct taxes by census and forbids states to lay duties on imports without consent^35,36,37,38. The Sixteenth Amendment later frees the income tax from apportionment³⁹. Marshall, faced with Maryland’s tax on the national bank, treats taxation as a great substantive power of sovereignty^40,41.

Where authority lapses, revenue goes with it. Plutarch notes that Italians were mutinous while Caesar’s war taxes were being levied and quiet once they had been paid⁴². Bacon lists taxes among the causes of sedition and their moderation among its remedies^43,44. Hobbes observes that men aggrieved by public payments blame the collectors and then the government⁴⁵. Burke describes Lyons refusing its taxes and the salt provinces throwing off the gabelle, until no lawful power remained to exact anything and the Assembly fell back on patriotic gifts, which he calls the feeble devices of a despotism^46,47,48. Manzoni’s Milanese council pleads for its taxes to be suspended and receives evasion from the governor instead⁴⁹.

On the principles of a just tax the texts agree to a remarkable degree. Plutarch praises Aristides for assessing the allies’ contributions according to each city’s ability and without corruption⁵⁰. Franklin objects to a flat watch-fee that charged a poor widow as much as a rich merchant⁵¹. Voltaire admires England because nobles and priests there are not exempt, the Commons fix the taxes and the land-tax is proportioned to estates⁵². Smith states these intuitions as his maxims. A tax should be equal, in proportion to ability; it should be certain rather than arbitrary; it should be convenient to pay; and it should be economical, taking from the people as little as possible beyond what reaches the treasury^53,54. Burke judges French finance by the same standard of equal assessment. He argues that Necker’s budget could have been balanced by an equal assessment on all orders⁵⁵, and that letting districts choose what to withhold left the submissive bearing the whole burden⁵⁶.

Moderation is the oldest of these principles. Confucius’s disciple advises a ruler facing dearth to take only a tithe, since the prince’s sufficiency depends on the people’s plenty⁵⁷. Hybreas warns Antony that a second tribute would ruin Asia⁵⁸. Machiavelli counsels thrift so that the prince need not lay hateful levies, and he wants subjects free of the fear of taxes that holds back enterprise^59,60. Bacon notes that heavy imposts shrink trade and so defeat their own purpose, and that a people overladen with taxes cannot be martial^61,62. Emerson makes the point a case of compensation, since a tax set too high yields nothing⁶³. Burke adds a qualification: a due proportion between what is kept and what is paid enriches both people and state, so paying considerably may be better than paying nothing^64,65.

Equality is most sharply tested by claims of exemption. Franklin’s autobiography records years of struggle against the Pennsylvania proprietors, who refused to allow any defence bill unless their estates were exempted. He condemns the meanness of the demand, and when the estates were finally taxed, the assessment was found to be perfectly equitable^{66,67,68,69,70}. Ancient privilege appears in many forms: the Egyptian warriors’ untaxed land⁷¹, the Batavians reserved for war instead of tribute⁷², and Don Quixote’s comic claim that knights-errant owe neither subsidy nor toll⁷³. Harrison observes that a purchased gentility costs the prince nothing, because the new gentleman still pays with the yeomen⁷⁴. Burke denies that the French privileged orders were in fact untaxed⁷⁵. Luther reads Christ’s payment of tribute as a free man’s voluntary submission for love’s sake⁷⁶. Woolman reverses the problem. He and other Friends scruple to pay a tax laid for war and prefer to suffer the distraint of their goods, while their committees divide over the risk of seeming disloyal^77,78,79,80.

Smith’s analysis of particular taxes takes his maxims into the question of incidence, that is, who finally pays. Herodotus already describes Sesostris abating his land-rent when the Nile carried a plot away⁸¹. Smith finds a fixed land-tax unequal over time but certain, cheap to collect and harmless to improvement⁸². Tithes and taxes on produce, by contrast, fall heaviest on poor land and discourage costly crops^83,84. Ground-rents, which owe their value to the protection of government, are the fittest subjects of special taxation⁸⁵. The window tax, however, oppresses the poor⁸⁶. Stock is hard to tax because its amount is secret and it can flee, so such a tax demands vexatious inquisition. Only where citizens trust their magistrates, as at Hamburg, do they assess themselves honestly on oath^87,88. Burns versifies his own sworn inventory for the surveyor⁸⁹, while Stevenson’s Pepys means to assess himself honestly but remains an evader when no merchant will do the same⁹⁰. Taxes on wages raise wages by more than the tax and damage industry^91,92. Capitations are either arbitrary or unequal⁹³, and transfer taxes eat into capital and press hardest on necessitous sellers^94,95.

Indirect taxes divide the moralists from the economists less than one might expect. Smith argues that taxes on necessaries act like a barren soil: they raise wages and so fall finally on the rich. Taxes on the poor’s luxuries, such as tobacco, tea and spirits, act instead like sumptuary laws^96,97,98,99. Burke holds that duties on consumption measure wealth better than direct contributions do¹⁰⁰. Mill accepts that fiscal taxation is inevitable and mostly indirect, and he would tax harmful stimulants among the things consumers can best spare, while denying that taxing them merely to restrict them is legitimate¹⁰¹. Smith condemns the mercantile use of duties and bounties, which lay a double tax on the people¹⁰². He shows how high duties breed smuggling, which corrupts respect for law^103,104, and he counts the vexation of excise visits as a real cost¹⁰⁵. Burns sees the matter from both sides. He rails at the Excise “horse-leeches”¹⁰⁶, laments his own appointment as a searcher of barrels¹⁰⁷, and retorts that landlords, monarchs and priests are all gaugers too¹⁰⁸. Tolls fare better with Smith, who calls them the most equitable charge when proportioned to the use of roads and canals^109,110. Schiller’s Swiss, however, see a toll on every bridge as a sign of foreign mastery¹¹¹, and Magna Charta, as Emerson quotes it, guards merchants against “evil toll”¹¹².

The collector draws a hatred older than any economic theory. Luke’s Pharisees scorn the publicans with whom Jesus eats¹¹³. Confucius disowns a disciple who enriched the powerful as their tax-gatherer¹¹⁴. Aristophanes consigns the revenue men to Hades¹¹⁵, and Alcibiades outwits the farmers of the public revenue¹¹⁶. Smith gives the reason: tax farming is wasteful, it enriches the farmers, and it presses for bloody laws against evasion^117,118.

War and debt alter the timing of the burden. Smith explains that new taxes yield too slowly for an emergency, so governments borrow. Because borrowing keeps the taxes light, people hardly feel the cost and do not tire of the war, and the taxes, once mortgaged to the debt, outlast the peace^119,120,121. In the end such taxes may drive capital abroad¹²². Ruskin adds the moral charge that wars financed by capitalists’ loans are repaid by peoples who had no voice in them¹²³. Mill traces the reform movement partly to taxation left by the French war¹²⁴.

Tribute and tithe show the idea in its oldest forms. Tribute marks subjection, whether it is the Gothinians’ disgrace¹²⁵, Machiavelli’s means of holding a free city¹²⁶ or Milan’s ignoble stooping to Naples¹²⁷. The question put to Jesus about tribute to Caesar, which he answers by rendering Caesar his due¹²⁸, becomes a political charge before Pilate¹²⁹. Ecclesiastical levies raise the same issues of justice. Luther denounces annates as a war levy turned permanent and demands that Germany be freed from papal taxes^130,131. Harrison’s clergy complain that their tenths and subsidies weigh more heavily on them than lay taxes do on the laity^132,133. Voltaire records Quakers persecuted for refusing tithes¹³⁴. Against these complaints Herbert receives his tithes as God’s gift and passes a tenth of them to the poor¹³⁵, and Luke’s Jesus warns that scrupulous tithing is no substitute for justice¹³⁶.

The final question, which remains open, is what a system of taxes does to a people. Smith judges that France raised less revenue than Britain yet oppressed its people more, partly because Britain’s uniform taxes left inland trade free^137,138. Spain’s tax on every sale, he says, ruined its manufactures¹³⁹, and he warns that once the proper subjects of taxation are exhausted, improper ones follow, as they did in Holland¹⁴⁰. Manzoni blames greedy taxes for leaving Milanese fields untilled¹⁴¹, and Rousseau sees imposts driving the husbandman from his land¹⁴². Emerson, however, sees Englishmen taxed “within an inch of their lives” and growing richer, and he concludes that a burden is to be judged by what it leaves rather than by what it takes¹⁴³. Between Smith’s warning and Emerson’s optimism the books leave the measure of a tolerable burden undecided.

Passages cited (143)

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 7–9read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 446read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Politics, Vol. 5, p. 247read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Vol. 24, p. 356–357read · scan
George Washington, Washington's Farewell Address, Vol. 43, p. 243read · scan
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Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 53read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 298–300read · scan
William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude, Vol. 1, p. 328read · scan
William Penn, More Fruits of Solitude, Vol. 1, p. 390read · scan
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, Vol. 25, p. 213read · scan
Plutarch, Themistocles, Vol. 12, p. 8read · scan
Pliny the Younger, Letters of Pliny, Vol. 9, p. 373–374read · scan
Blaise Pascal, Thoughts, Vol. 48, p. 250read · scan
Plutarch, Antony, Vol. 12, p. 336read · scan
Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, Vol. 36, p. 83read · scan
Walter Bagehot, John Milton, Vol. 28, p. 188read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and Songs, Vol. 6, p. 153read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 503–504read · scan
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The Instrument of Government, Vol. 43, p. 106–107read · scan
John Milton, Areopagitica, Vol. 3, p. 227read · scan
John Milton, Areopagitica, Vol. 3, p. 226–227read · scan
John Dryden, All for Love; or, The World Well Lost, Vol. 18, p. 7read · scan
Declaration of Rights, Vol. 43, p. 147–148read · scan
Declaration of Rights, Vol. 43, p. 148read · scan
The Declaration of Independence, Vol. 43, p. 151–152read · scan
Benjamin Franklin, His Autobiography, Vol. 1, p. 125read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, English Traits, Vol. 5, p. 358–359read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Politics, Vol. 5, p. 239–240read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Vol. 24, p. 307–308read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Vol. 24, p. 312–313read · scan
The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, Vol. 43, p. 63–64read · scan
Articles of Confederation, Vol. 43, p. 161–162read · scan
Constitution of the United States, Vol. 43, p. 184–185read · scan
Constitution of the United States, Vol. 43, p. 183read · scan
Constitution of the United States, Vol. 43, p. 185–186read · scan
Constitution of the United States, Vol. 43, p. 186–187read · scan
Constitution of the United States, Vol. 43, p. 197–198read · scan
John Marshall, Opinion of Chief Justice Marshall in the Case of McCulloch vs. the State of Maryland, Vol. 43, p. 208–209read · scan
John Marshall, Opinion of Chief Justice Marshall in the Case of McCulloch vs. the State of Maryland, Vol. 43, p. 215read · scan
Plutarch, Antony, Vol. 12, p. 366read · scan
Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and Moral, Vol. 3, p. 38–39read · scan
Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and Moral, Vol. 3, p. 39–40read · scan
Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of Leviathan, Vol. 34, p. 374–375read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Vol. 24, p. 356read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Vol. 24, p. 359–360read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Vol. 24, p. 361read · scan
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed), Vol. 21, p. 518–519read · scan
Plutarch, Aristides, Vol. 12, p. 100–102read · scan
Benjamin Franklin, His Autobiography, Vol. 1, p. 98–99read · scan
Voltaire, Letters on the English, Vol. 34, p. 91read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 477read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 477–478read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Vol. 24, p. 253read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Vol. 24, p. 360read · scan
Confucius, The Sayings of Confucius, Vol. 44, p. 38read · scan
Plutarch, Antony, Vol. 12, p. 338read · scan
Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, Vol. 36, p. 52read · scan
Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, Vol. 36, p. 74–75read · scan
Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and Moral, Vol. 3, p. 51–52read · scan
Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and Moral, Vol. 3, p. 75–76read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Compensation, Vol. 5, p. 88–89read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Vol. 24, p. 357read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Vol. 24, p. 373read · scan
Benjamin Franklin, His Autobiography, Vol. 1, p. 127read · scan
Benjamin Franklin, His Autobiography, Vol. 1, p. 137–138read · scan
Benjamin Franklin, His Autobiography, Vol. 1, p. 145read · scan
Benjamin Franklin, His Autobiography, Vol. 1, p. 161read · scan
Benjamin Franklin, His Autobiography, Vol. 1, p. 161–162read · scan
Herodotus, An Account of Egypt, Vol. 33, p. 83–84read · scan
Tacitus, Germany, Vol. 33, p. 108read · scan
Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part I, Vol. 14, p. 456–457read · scan
William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan England, Vol. 35, p. 222read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Vol. 24, p. 254read · scan
Martin Luther, Concerning Christian Liberty, Vol. 36, p. 370read · scan
John Woolman, The Journal of John Woolman, Vol. 1, p. 213read · scan
John Woolman, The Journal of John Woolman, Vol. 1, p. 217read · scan
John Woolman, The Journal of John Woolman, Vol. 1, p. 218read · scan
John Woolman, The Journal of John Woolman, Vol. 1, p. 219–220read · scan
Herodotus, An Account of Egypt, Vol. 33, p. 52read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 479read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 486read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 487–488read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 492–493read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 494–495read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 497–498read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 499read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and Songs, Vol. 6, p. 186–187read · scan
Robert Louis Stevenson, Samuel Pepys, Vol. 28, p. 300–301read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 511read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 512–513read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 514–515read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 508read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 509–510read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 345–346read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 518read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 518–519read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 532–533read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Vol. 24, p. 311read · scan
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, Vol. 25, p. 294–297read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 376–377read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 526–527read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 538read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 539read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and Songs, Vol. 6, p. 145–147read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and Songs, Vol. 6, p. 354–356read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and Songs, Vol. 6, p. 459–461read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 453–454read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 454read · scan
Friedrich Schiller, William Tell, Vol. 26, p. 406–411read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, English Traits, Vol. 5, p. 467read · scan
Luke, The Gospel According to Luke, Vol. 44, p. 366–367read · scan
Confucius, The Sayings of Confucius, Vol. 44, p. 34–35read · scan
Aristophanes, The Frogs, Vol. 8, p. 482–487read · scan
Plutarch, Alcibiades, Vol. 12, p. 110read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 542–543read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 544read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 551–552read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 555read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 559read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 560–561read · scan
John Ruskin, Sesame and Lilies, Vol. 28, p. 130read · scan
John Stuart Mill, Autobiography, Vol. 25, p. 64read · scan
Tacitus, Germany, Vol. 33, p. 116read · scan
Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, Vol. 36, p. 18read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Vol. 46, p. 399read · scan
Luke, The Gospel According to Luke, Vol. 44, p. 406read · scan
Luke, The Gospel According to Luke, Vol. 44, p. 413read · scan
Martin Luther, Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, Vol. 36, p. 278–279read · scan
Martin Luther, Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, Vol. 36, p. 330read · scan
William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan England, Vol. 35, p. 262read · scan
William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan England, Vol. 35, p. 262–263read · scan
Voltaire, Letters on the English, Vol. 34, p. 73–74read · scan
Izaak Walton, The Life of Mr. George Herbert, Vol. 15, p. 407read · scan
Luke, The Gospel According to Luke, Vol. 44, p. 386read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 546read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 541read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 540read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 561–562read · scan
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed), Vol. 21, p. 196read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality among Mankind, Vol. 34, p. 224–225read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, English Traits, Vol. 5, p. 393read · scan

Introductory essay written by Claude Opus 5.5 from the outline and the notes on every passage below; quotations are checked against this edition.

1The nature and necessity of taxation
2The authority to tax and the controversy over consent
3The principles of just taxation
4Exemption, privilege and the quarrel over equal assessment
5Taxes on land, houses, stock and wages
6Taxes on commodities, customs and tolls
7The collection of taxes and the grievances of the collector
1. 7aTax farming and the odium of collectors
2. 7bEvasion, fraud and dishonest assessment
8Public debt, war and the timing of taxes
9Tribute, ecclesiastical levies and tithes
1. 9aTribute as the mark of conquest and subjection
2. 9bTithes, annates and papal exactions
10Effects of taxation on wealth, industry and liberty

1.The nature and necessity of taxation

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 7–9Smith's preview of Book V: which public expenses fall on all or on some, the methods of contribution with their advantages and drawbacks, and public debt.read · scan
p. 131–132Criticizes regulations letting tradesmen tax themselves for their poor, sick and widows, since it forces assemblies that foster combination against the public.read · scan
p. 446Outlines the coming book: which sovereign expenses society should bear generally or in part, methods of contribution and their merits, and public debts.read · scan

1a.Taxes as the necessary support of the state

Plutarch, ThemistoclesVol. 12

p. 8Themistocles persuades Athens to stop distributing the Laurium silver-mine revenue among citizens and spend it on building a fleet, an argument about the use of public revenue.read · scan

Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9

p. 373–374Trajan allows the Prusenses to rebuild a bath provided no new tax is levied and existing taxes for necessary services are not diverted.read · scan
p. 383–384Pliny relieves Byzantium of a three-thousand-sesterce levy for sending an envoy to the governor, lightening a city's public expense burden.read · scan

Dante Alighieri, PurgatoryVol. 20

p. 189–190Provenzano Salvani humbled himself by begging the Sienese to contribute the ransom Charles of Sicily demanded for his friend; a levy raised by public contribution, treated only briefly.read · scan

Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31

p. 431Lessee objects that a lifetime lease would incur the largest duties to the revenue, so the lease is drawn for five years; duties shape contract structure.read · scan

Edward Haies, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to NewfoundlandVol. 33

p. 278Ships fishing at Newfoundland were taxed at an easy rate to supply Gilbert's fleet; a levy of provisions on merchants.read · scan
p. 280Gilbert granted land for rent and service, and levied provisions by taxing each fishing ship; rents and levies at the new colony.read · scan

Nathaniel Ward, The Body of LibertiesVol. 43

p. 74–75Officials' court expenses defrayed by town, shire or country; towns may levy penalties by distress. Only marginal public-charge provisions.read · scan

John Dryden, All for Love; or, The World Well LostVol. 18

p. 7Praises Danby's treasury management: restored and advanced the king's revenues 'without grievance to the subject,' and settled exchequer debts; revenue administration without burdening subjects.read · scan

William Penn, Some Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1

p. 328Proposes that a nation's superfluities be made a perpetual tax or benevolence, funding almshouses, schools and government.read · scan

William Penn, More Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1

p. 390Penn argues that applying superfluities to public needs would end taxes, and that pride should be taxed instead of lawful things being excised.read · scan

Benjamin Franklin, His AutobiographyVol. 1

p. 119Neighbors subscribe sixpence monthly for street cleaning, and the success makes people more willing to accept a tax for paving.read · scan

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 173–174Sovereign's revenue from silver mines leads Peruvian and Cornish law to favor mine discoverers, with only a small acknowledgment owed the landlord; private property is sacrificed to public revenue.read · scan
p. 221–222Treasure-trove and mines treated as part of feudal sovereigns' revenue; concealment of stock fears sovereign violence. Revenue source noted but not tax analysis.read · scan
p. 248–249Notes that taxes were usually paid in paper money, so collapse of paper credit in war leaves the prince unable to pay troops.read · scan
p. 255Notes that colonial paper money gained value from being receivable for provincial taxes, so its worth depended on how much exceeded what tax payments could absorb.read · scan
p. 256Observes that a prince requiring a portion of his taxes to be paid in a given paper money could give that paper value.read · scan
p. 310States the second object of political economy: supplying the state with a revenue sufficient for public services, introducing the later treatment of public revenue.read · scan
p. 468Introduces public revenue as drawn from sovereign's own funds or from the people's revenue; mostly about state mercantile profits, only framing taxation.read · scan
p. 475–476Argues selling crown lands would raise customs and excise revenue with growing consumption; mainly about crown lands, taxes only incidental.read · scan

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24

p. 192Ironically asks whether all taxes are to be voted grievances and the land and malt taxes replaced by patriotic gifts to support the navy.read · scan
p. 267Mentions the Assembly's first-ever imposition of a tax to maintain the poor amid mendicancy in Paris.read · scan
p. 356–357Burke makes revenue the test of the Assembly: the revenue is the state, the spring of power and virtue, and must be improved, collected and cleansed of oppression.read · scan

George Washington, Washington's Farewell AddressVol. 43

p. 243Washington says debt payment requires revenue and revenue requires taxes, all inconvenient; citizens should acquiesce in the government's choice of taxes and not burden posterity.read · scan

Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21

p. 509The Decurioni raise money by loans and taxes to fund the Lazzaretto, the poor and corn, while the dispute over charging the city or the royal exchequer is noted.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, English TraitsVol. 5

p. 355–356Englishmen in politics bluntly ask 'who is to pay the taxes?', showing taxation as a practical test of public questions.read · scan

John Stuart Mill, On LibertyVol. 25

p. 213Uses bad taxes as an example of governmental error that does not forbid taxing altogether, in an argument about fallibility and authority.read · scan

1b.The ultimate sources of taxes: rent, profit and wages

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 53States that all taxes and revenue founded on them derive ultimately from wages, profits of stock, or rent of land.read · scan
p. 260Workmen's spare revenue pays taxes that maintain unproductive hands; the large number of laborers compensates for the smallness of each one's contribution.read · scan
p. 298–300Annual produce of a country is the fund from which all taxes must ultimately be paid, so policy should aim to increase it.read · scan
p. 476–477Concludes state expense must be met by taxes; every tax falls finally on rent, profit or wages; announces plan of examining taxes and maxims.read · scan

1c.Taxation as imposition, burden and badge of subjection

Buddhist WritingsVol. 45

p. 581Lists freedom from rulers' oppressive levies of precious metals or base money as an advantage of monastic life, implying the burden of royal exactions on subjects.read · scan

Plutarch, AntonyVol. 12

p. 336The triumvirs, to fund their dissipation and war, lay on every possible tax and imposition besides confiscating estates; an instance of rapacious, arbitrary exaction.read · scan
p. 337–338Antony must levy severe taxes and contributions on the eastern provinces to pay his soldiers' promised five thousand drachmas each.read · scan

Niccolò Machiavelli, The PrinceVol. 36

p. 83Laments the exactions and imposts laid on Naples and Tuscany as part of Italy's oppression by foreign rulers.read · scan

Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48

p. 250Prophecy of Daniel describes a tyrant king as a 'raiser of taxes', presenting taxation as an instrument of oppressive rule over the people; brief.read · scan

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 273–274Smith refers to the 'exactions of government' and the extravagance of kings and ministers, whose spending, not private spending, endangers the state; taxation is only implied.read · scan
p. 503–504Poll-taxes called badges of slavery, but Smith says any tax is a badge of liberty; distinguishes slave and freeman poll taxes; servant taxes fall on middling rank.read · scan

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Tragedy of Faust, Part IVol. 19

p. 39–41A burgher grumbles that under the new Burgomaster restraints multiply and the townspeople pay more taxes than ever, a brief complaint about growing tax burden.read · scan

Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6

p. 87–89Says Highlandmen hate tolls and taxes, a brief remark on popular resentment of levies.read · scan
p. 153Poor folk over their ale talk of what new taxation is coming, showing taxes as a common concern of the poor.read · scan
p. 375–377Asks in news-hungry satire how cesses and stents are levied and whether the poor are still taxed, a brief jibe at taxation.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, PoliticsVol. 5

p. 247Taxation as imposition of one man's will on another: a distant stranger orders part of my labor to whimsical ends; taxes are the debt men least willingly pay.read · scan
p. 250Pays 'unwilling tribute' to governments founded on force; confiscation and coercion mentioned, but tribute is only a figure for submission to the state.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, New England ReformersVol. 5

p. 255Dissenters resist the assessor and deny the State's claim, alongside free-trade sentiment; 'destructive tax' in conformity is mainly metaphor.read · scan

Walter Bagehot, John MiltonVol. 28

p. 188Milton condemns the Commonwealth's new magistracy for answering the demand for better laws with fresh impositions, taxes and excises levied yearly, monthly, weekly; taxation as oppression and corrupt rule.read · scan

2.The authority to tax and the controversy over consent

2a.No taxation without consent or representation

John Winthrop, Arbitrary Government Described and the Government of the Massachusetts Vindicated from That AspersionVol. 43

p. 86Freemen's liberty of counsel means no taxes, impositions or burdens can be imposed on persons or estates without their consent in the General Assemblies.read · scan

John Milton, AreopagiticaVol. 3

p. 226–227Editorial note on resisting illegal taxation (ship-money, Danegelt) for troops; Milton says he values liberty to know and argue above defending such immunities.read · scan
p. 227Footnote says those who took up arms in the civil war refused to submit to Charles I's illegal ship-money tax; text itself is on licensing.read · scan

John Dryden, All for Love; or, The World Well LostVol. 18

p. 7Argues English government by consent suits an island; absolute rulers could levy vaster, more frequent taxes without consent, but conquest abroad would leave people poor at home.read · scan

The Instrument of GovernmentVol. 43

p. 106–107Article VI: no tax, charge or imposition may be laid on the people except by common consent in Parliament, with one stated exception.read · scan

Benjamin Franklin, His AutobiographyVol. 1

p. 124–125Substitute scheme for colonial defense would be refunded by an act of Parliament laying a tax on America.read · scan
p. 125Franklin says the union plan would have avoided the pretext for taxing America and the bloody contest it caused.read · scan

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24

p. 307–308Attacks tax-paying qualifications (ten days' labour, a mark of silver in direct contribution) as barriers on voting; property-based contribution contradicts equal rights of men.read · scan

Declaration of RightsVol. 43

p. 147–148Declares no taxes without consent of the colonists' own representatives; Stamp Act duties are burdensome, impracticable to pay for scarcity of specie, and subvert liberty.read · scan
p. 148Condemns the Stamp Act and duties as subverting colonial rights, grievous and impossible to pay given scarce specie; colonial trade profits already fund the crown.read · scan

The Declaration of IndependenceVol. 43

p. 151–152Among grievances against the king: imposing taxes on the colonists without their consent.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, PoliticsVol. 5

p. 239–240Laban/Jacob parable: property owners pay a tax for frontier defense of their herds, so those who bear the tax should have the vote on property protection.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, English TraitsVol. 5

p. 358–359Revolutions arise from property rights: ship-money and the American Revolution were disputes over taxation, and questions of taxation are money questions to Englishmen.read · scan
p. 388–389Cites Chatham's 'no taxation without representation' as British law, set against restrictions on American manufacture; taxation and liberty invoked briefly within a critique of English insularity.read · scan

2b.Constitutional allocation of the taxing power

See also: Government 7c · Constitution 6b · Law 9e · War and Peace 10d

Nathaniel Ward, The Body of LibertiesVol. 43

p. 68–69Forbids rating any man for estate or revenue held in England or abroad until it is brought into the colony; a limit on the tax base.read · scan

The Fundamental Orders of ConnecticutVol. 43

p. 63–64General Court alone holds supreme power to grant levies; fines are levied by the treasurer. Taxing authority is only briefly placed in the legislature.read · scan

The Instrument of GovernmentVol. 43

p. 113–114Sets a standing yearly revenue raised by customs and other means for army, navy and government; extraordinary money raising needs Parliament's consent, with interim protectoral power.read · scan

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24

p. 312–313Criticizes the Assembly for basing representation on direct contribution without settling how it is laid and apportioned; constitution would depend on the system of taxation.read · scan

John Marshall, Opinion of Chief Justice Marshall in the Case of McCulloch vs. the State of MarylandVol. 43

p. 208–209Introduces McCulloch: Maryland's tax on the U.S. Bank, meant to bar it from the state, is contested as a state taxing a federal institution.read · scan
p. 213Marshall cites the federal power to lay and collect taxes and revenue as implying ample means, such as a bank, to move treasure around the nation.read · scan
p. 214Raising revenue and applying it to national purposes is said to imply power to convey money and choose convenient means, including a corporation.read · scan
p. 215Lists levying taxes as a great substantive, independent sovereign power, contrasted with the incidental power of incorporation; taxation itself is not discussed.read · scan
p. 217Cites the constitutional bar on States laying imposts or duties on imports and exports unless absolutely necessary for inspection laws, to illustrate the meaning of 'necessary'.read · scan

Articles of ConfederationVol. 43

p. 160States may not lay imposts or duties that interfere with treaties made by Congress; a limit on state duties.read · scan
p. 161–162Article VIII funds common defence from a common treasury, apportioned among states by land value; states lay and levy the taxes to pay their share.read · scan
p. 162Congress's treaty power may not restrain states from imposing on foreigners the same imposts and duties as on their own people, or from prohibiting imports and exports.read · scan

Constitution of the United StatesVol. 43

p. 180–182Direct taxes are apportioned among the states by population, counting three fifths of other persons and excluding Indians not taxed.read · scan
p. 183All bills for raising revenue must originate in the House of Representatives, assigning taxing initiative to the popular chamber.read · scan
p. 184–185Congress is empowered to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises for debts, defence and general welfare, with duties uniform nationwide.read · scan
p. 185–186Limits on taxation: tax on imported persons capped at ten dollars, direct taxes by census, no export taxes, no port preference in duties.read · scan
p. 186–187States may not lay imposts or duties on imports or exports, or tonnage duties, without Congress's consent; net proceeds go to the U.S. Treasury.read · scan

2c.Revolt against taxes and the collapse of revenue

Plutarch, AntonyVol. 12

p. 366Caesar's war taxes (a fourth of freemen's incomes, an eighth of freedmen's property) provoke outcries and disturbances in Italy; people mutinous while being taxed, quiet once paid.read · scan

Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and MoralVol. 3

p. 38–39Lists taxes among the causes and motives of sedition, so burdensome levies are a source of popular discontent and rebellion.read · scan
p. 39–40Names moderating taxes and tributes among the remedies for want and poverty that breed sedition.read · scan

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24

p. 356Lyons refuses taxes and the gabelles are shaken off; with no lawful authority left to exact them, municipalities judge which taxes to pay, and troops are the only answer.read · scan
p. 359–360Assembly denounced the salt monopoly as oppressive and partial yet ordered it paid; exempt provinces refused their share, and salt provinces threw off the burden, so taxes collapsed.read · scan
p. 361Patriotic gifts and contributions are condemned as feeble, ruinous devices of despotism, exhausted resources substituting for a sound revenue system.read · scan
p. 361–362Notes the Assembly's other schemes of taxation are untried and unlikely to fill the breach in revenues, while the treasury sinks.read · scan
p. 363Argues the new regime's expenses exceed the old, so lost revenue is not offset by economy; criticizes its finance management.read · scan
p. 372Burke mocks the Assembly's claim to have relieved the people while ordering the obnoxious taxes paid; the revenue vanished, and the provinces are drained to maintain Paris.read · scan

Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21

p. 518–519Milan's council petitions the governor to suspend taxes, citing an exhausted treasury, unpaid current taxes, pledged revenue and precedent of 1576; he evades, granting no relief.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29

p. 308–309Imagines an earthquake in England leaving government unable to collect taxes, so that authority collapses; taxation appears only as a sign of state order.read · scan

3.The principles of just taxation

3a.Equality and proportion to ability

Plutarch, AristidesVol. 12

p. 100–102Aristides assesses the allied Greek contributions by each city's ability, justly and without corruption; later raised by Pericles and the demagogues, who spent the proceeds on largesses.read · scan

Daniel Defoe, The Shortest-Way with the DissentersVol. 27

p. 134Defoe's High-Church speaker complains that loyal Anglicans' estates were double taxed to fund a war they opposed, citing unjust burden of taxation as a grievance.read · scan

Voltaire, Letters on the EnglishVol. 34

p. 91English taxation praised as just: no exemption for nobles or priests, Commons sets taxes, proportional to estate, fixed land-tax, no arbitrary poll-tax, peasants prosper.read · scan

Benjamin Franklin, His AutobiographyVol. 1

p. 98–99Franklin attacks the flat six-shilling watch fee as unequal between poor widow and wealthy merchant, and proposes a tax proportioned to property.read · scan

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 465–466States principles of just burden: defence and the sovereign's dignity paid by general contribution in proportion to ability, justice costs by court fees, and local expenses by local revenue.read · scan
p. 477First two maxims of taxation: contribute in proportion to ability (equality), and tax must be certain not arbitrary, guarding against tax-gatherers' extortion.read · scan

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24

p. 253Burke argues Necker's budget showed France's deficit could be closed by a fair, equal assessment on all orders without new impositions, so confiscation of church property was unnecessary.read · scan
p. 357–359A financier's duties are to secure ample revenue and impose it with judgment and equality; the Assembly instead cut annual revenue by over a third.read · scan
p. 360Letting districts choose what to withhold created oppressive inequality: the submissive bore the whole burden; the voluntary quarter-income benevolence was an unequal tax loading productive capital and virtue.read · scan

3b.Certainty, convenience and economy of collection

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 477First two maxims of taxation: contribute in proportion to ability (equality), and tax must be certain not arbitrary, guarding against tax-gatherers' extortion.read · scan
p. 477–478Maxims of convenience and economy: tax collected conveniently, and should not drain people beyond treasury yield via officers, obstruction of industry, smuggling penalties, vexation.read · scan
p. 536Luxury taxes are certain and convenient but violate the fourth maxim; collection costs of customs and excise officers burden people beyond what reaches the treasury.read · scan

3c.Moderation and the self-defeating tax

Confucius, The Sayings of ConfuciusVol. 44

p. 38Duke Ai, in a year of dearth, asks about raising revenue; Yu Jo advises a tithe of one-tenth, arguing the ruler's sufficiency depends on the people's plenty.read · scan

Marcus Tullius Cicero, Letters of CiceroVol. 9

p. 142King Ariobarzanes, with no treasury or regular income, levies special taxes on the Appian method, yet they barely cover Pompey's interest; shows fiscal exhaustion of a tributary kingdom.read · scan

Plutarch, AntonyVol. 12

p. 338Antony proposes a second yearly tribute on Asia; Hybreas protests that Asia already paid two hundred thousand talents and a double levy would ruin the people.read · scan

Niccolò Machiavelli, The PrinceVol. 36

p. 52A prince who seeks a name for liberality must burden subjects with extraordinary taxes and become hated. A thrifty prince avoids such levies, as Julius II did.read · scan
p. 74–75A prince should secure his subjects' property and trade so none holds back from fear of taxes, which discourage enterprise.read · scan

Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and MoralVol. 3

p. 51–52Taxes and imposts on merchants seldom benefit the king's revenue, since higher rates shrink total trade; taxation can defeat its own fiscal purpose.read · scan
p. 75–76A people overladen with taxes cannot become martial; taxes granted by consent (Dutch excises, English subsidies) hurt courage less; overcharged tribute unfits a nation for empire.read · scan

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24

p. 357Prosperity grows with revenue when a due proportion is kept between what individuals retain and what the state collects; sound finance as a measure of public virtue.read · scan
p. 373Burke argues it is better for the people to pay considerably and gain in proportion than to be freed of all contribution; the statesman must balance acquisition against state demands.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, CompensationVol. 5

p. 88–89Cites over-taxation as an example of the law of compensation: if you tax too high, the revenue will yield nothing.read · scan

4.Exemption, privilege and the quarrel over equal assessment

4a.The proprietary estates and Franklin's dispute

See also: Government 6b · War and Peace 8d

Benjamin Franklin, His AutobiographyVol. 1

p. 127Proprietaries instructed deputies to pass no tax act for defense unless their estates were exempted; the Assembly resisted this injustice for years.read · scan
p. 128Governor refuses a supply bill without a clause exempting the proprietary estate from the tax; Franklin devises orders funded by interest and excise revenue.read · scan
p. 137–138Governor Morris rejects money bills lacking an exemption for proprietary estates; the Assembly holds firm on taxing all estates, and the proprietaries are denounced for injustice.read · scan
p. 138–139Proprietors' £5,000 gift is accepted in lieu of their share of a general tax, and an exempting clause passes the bill.read · scan
p. 145Franklin warmly opposed exempting the proprietor's estate from taxation, condemning its meanness and injustice, which earned the governor's rancour.read · scan
p. 145–146Governor hoped Franklin's influence would secure money grants, perhaps without taxing the proprietary estate.read · scan
p. 161Act taxing proprietary estate equally with the people's is disputed before the Council; the proprietors fear unfair assessment, Franklin argues honest assessors; the law is allowed.read · scan
p. 161–162Assembly's committee examines the assessors' proceedings and reports the tax was assessed with perfect equity, answering the proprietaries' dispute over taxation of their estates.read · scan

4b.Exemptions of classes and persons

Herodotus, An Account of EgyptVol. 33

p. 83–84Warrior classes (Calasirians, Hermotybians) and priests held twelve yokes of land free from imposts, a tax exemption privilege tied to military service.read · scan

Plutarch, PericlesVol. 12

p. 68–69The people exempt the informer Menon from taxes and customs as a privilege granted by decree.read · scan

Tacitus, GermanyVol. 33

p. 108Batavians are exempt from tribute and tax-farmers' exactions, reserved for war service; contrasts with lands under decimation (tithe) in the Empire's frontier.read · scan

Martin Luther, Concerning Christian LibertyVol. 36

p. 370Christ, though free as a king's child and exempt from tribute, voluntarily pays the tax to avoid offence; Christians likewise submit to authorities out of love.read · scan

William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan EnglandVol. 35

p. 222Purchased gentility costs the prince nothing because the new gentleman bears taxes and public payments equally with yeomen and husbandmen, so the grant of arms causes no loss of revenue.read · scan

Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14

p. 456–457Don Quixote claims knights-errant are exempt from tribute, subsidy, tallage, carriage and tolls, citing the immunity of chivalric privilege from public levies.read · scan

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24

p. 250–251Henry VIII bribed Parliament with a share of monastic spoil and perpetual immunity from taxation to confirm his confiscations.read · scan
p. 253Burke argues Necker's budget showed France's deficit could be closed by a fair, equal assessment on all orders without new impositions, so confiscation of church property was unnecessary.read · scan
p. 254Details taxes paid by French nobility and clergy (capitation, twentieth penny, excise, customs, free gifts), refuting the claim that the privileged orders were exempt from taxation.read · scan
p. 269–270Notes nobility voluntarily surrendered their tax privileges and the king renounced any claim of a right of taxation, in prelude to a free constitution.read · scan

Constitution of the United StatesVol. 43

p. 196–197Apportionment of representatives excludes Indians not taxed, using taxation status as a criterion of counting.read · scan

Treaty with MexicoVol. 43

p. 304Comforts sent to prisoners of war are received by the commissary exempt from all duties or taxes.read · scan

Convention Between the United States and the Republic of PanamaVol. 43

p. 456Panama agrees to impose no taxes or personal charges on the canal, railway, and their employees; US imports are duty-free, with duties due if goods are sold in Panama.read · scan

4c.Conscience and the war tax

John Woolman, The Journal of John WoolmanVol. 1

p. 213A Carolina Friend refuses to pay a war tax on conscience, suffering distraint of his goods; Woolman shares the same scruple.read · scan
p. 217Woolman's conscientious scruple against paying taxes laid to fund war against the Indians; prefers passive suffering of distrained goods over active payment.read · scan
p. 218Woolman reasons why Friends should scruple war taxes: involvement in government and prosperity make paying them dangerous to peace testimony, unlike early Friends.read · scan
p. 219–220Quaker committees divided over paying the war tax; refusal risks seeming disloyal to rulers; an epistle of caution is issued to Friends.read · scan

5.Taxes on land, houses, stock and wages

5a.Land taxes and the tax on produce

See also: Wealth 13a · Government 8b · Justice 8b

Herodotus, An Account of EgyptVol. 33

p. 52Sesostris gave each Egyptian an equal land plot and levied an annual rent as revenue, with abatement proportional to land the Nile washed away; a land-tax with relief.read · scan

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 173Spanish king's tax on Peruvian silver (one-fifth, cut to one-tenth) and the duke of Cornwall's tin duty compared; they take what would be rent, and the higher tax invites smuggling and poor payment.read · scan
p. 428–429Physiocrats hold improvement rent should be exempt from tithe and taxation, since taxing it discourages improvement and reduces future tithes and taxes.read · scan
p. 473Compares British land-tax yield, assessment and base (rents, houses, stock) with total ordinary revenue levied on the people; shows land rent cannot replace taxes.read · scan
p. 479Applies the four maxims to land-tax: fixed-canon tax becomes unequal but is certain, convenient, cheap to collect, and does not discourage improvement.read · scan
p. 480Britain's fixed land-tax valuation favoured landlords over the sovereign amid rising rents; shows how changes in rents or silver's value would shift the burden.read · scan
p. 481–482Taxes should fall equally on the fund that finally pays them; reviews the French economists' land-rent tax and the Venetian tenth, comparing equality, certainty and cost of levying.read · scan
p. 483Cost of levying a variable land-tax and its discouragement of improvement; suggests indemnifying landlords and sovereign should encourage cultivation.read · scan
p. 484–485A variable land-tax adapts to changing conditions and suits a fundamental law; surveys Prussian land-tax rates on lay and clerical owners.read · scan
p. 485–486Land-taxes by survey grow unequal over time; the Montauban taille shows arbitrary remedies and the burden of government's continual re-assessment.read · scan
p. 486Taxes on produce, like tithe, fall finally on landlord's rent and are unequal, burdening poor lands far more than rich ones.read · scan
p. 487–488Tithe discourages improvement and costly crops, as with madder; notes land-taxes on produce in China, Bengal and Egypt.read · scan

5b.Taxes on house-rent and ground-rent

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 489Incidence of a house-rent tax: it falls partly on inhabitant and partly on ground-owner, not on building rent.read · scan
p. 490–491House-rent tax falls heaviest on the rich, which Smith deems not unreasonable; it resembles a consumption tax and may be evaded.read · scan
p. 491–492Assessing house-rents and ground-rents: uninhabited houses exempt, rate by likely rent; ground-rent a proper subject, tax falls wholly on its owner.read · scan
p. 492–493Argues ground-rents and land rent are the fittest revenue for special taxation, since taxing them discourages no industry; ground-rent value owes to government's protection.read · scan
p. 493–494Describes house-rent taxation in Britain's land-tax and Holland's 2.5% value tax, noting inequality of assessment and hardship of taxing untenanted houses.read · scan
p. 494–495Traces hearth-money, house and window taxes; hearth tax abolished as odious; window tax objected to as unequal, falling harder on the poor.read · scan

5c.Taxes on stock, interest and the profits of trades

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 288Rejects the prejudice of political writers that shopkeepers and tradesmen should be taxed or restricted in number; retailers benefit the public.read · scan
p. 495–496House taxes tend to lower rents; analyzes how a direct tax on stock profit would be shifted onto landlords, consumers, or interest.read · scan
p. 496–497Considers taxing interest of money like land rent; tax would not raise interest rate, yet interest is a less proper subject of direct taxation.read · scan
p. 497–498Taxing stock is hard: its amount is secret and fluctuating, requiring vexatious inquisition, and mobile capital would flee, so such taxes are loose and arbitrary.read · scan
p. 498–499English land-tax meant to tax stock proportionally to land but assessments are fixed, unequal and far below real value; inquisitions into private means avoided.read · scan
p. 499Self-assessed property taxes on oath in Hamburg and Swiss cantons, paid honestly where citizens trust magistrates and see the tax's necessity.read · scan
p. 500Oath-declared wealth taxes burden merchants at Hamburg; Holland's 2% capital tax paid once in emergency but too heavy to be permanent without ruining people.read · scan
p. 501Distinguishes taxes on capital from taxes on interest; taxes on profits of particular trades (hawkers, coaches, alehouse licences) fall finally on consumers.read · scan
p. 501Flat licence taxes on dealers favour the great and oppress small dealers, while taxes proportioned to trade don't; shop tax abandoned as requiring insupportable inquisition.read · scan
p. 502–503Trade-profit taxes pass to consumers by reduced supply; farm-profit taxes fall on landlord at lease renewal; colonial poll-taxes on slaves fall on planters as landlords.read · scan
p. 504–505Smith analyzes how taxes on stock profits and the French Vingtieme fall on interest of money, and introduces taxes on capital value at property transfer.read · scan

Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6

p. 184–186Introduces Burns's versified reply to the Surveyor of the Taxes' mandate, offering a sworn list of goods and gear for assessment.read · scan
p. 186–187Burns's mock inventory for the surveyor of taxes lists horses, carts, and servants, joking that no tax on misses or his daughter should be laid on him.read · scan

5d.Taxes on wages, polls and persons

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 503–504Poll-taxes called badges of slavery, but Smith says any tax is a badge of liberty; distinguishes slave and freeman poll taxes; servant taxes fall on middling rank.read · scan
p. 511A direct tax on wages raises wages by more than the tax, since labourer must retain subsistence; shows incidence arithmetic.read · scan
p. 512Wage tax is advanced by employers and finally paid by consumers or landlords, with greater burden than equivalent taxes on rent and commodities.read · scan
p. 512–513Wage taxes reduce demand for labour and industry; called absurd and destructive; French taille and Bohemian artificer taxes as examples.read · scan
p. 513–514Taxes on professional pay raise it; office emoluments can bear taxation and such taxes are popular; introduces capitation and consumption taxes.read · scan
p. 514–515Capitation taxes are arbitrary if proportioned to fortune, unequal if to rank; uncertainty worse than inequality, illustrated by William III's poll-taxes.read · scan
p. 515–516Compares French capitation, assessed by rank for the great and arbitrarily by intendants for the poor, with English poll-taxes; treats unequal assessment, collection severity and who bears the burden.read · scan
p. 516–517Capitation on the poor is a direct tax on wages; cheap and sure to collect; its impracticability led to taxes on consumable commodities, distinguishing necessaries from luxuries.read · scan

5e.Taxes on income and on property transfers

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 505Explains why property transfers can be taxed directly or only indirectly via stamp-duties and registration; cites Augustus's twentieth penny on inheritances.read · scan
p. 506Dutch succession taxes graded by kinship; argues taxing direct heirs would be cruel and oppressive; feudal casualties as transfer taxes.read · scan
p. 506–507Feudal reliefs, wardship and alienation fines as taxes on land transfer, still sovereign revenue in Berne and Lucerne; indirect taxation by stamps.read · scan
p. 507–508Compares stamp-duties and registration duties in Britain, Holland and France, their rates, basis and collection.read · scan
p. 508Incidence of transfer, sale and stamp taxes: falling on heir, seller or borrower; oppressive to necessitous sellers; governments quickly copy ways of draining money.read · scan
p. 509–510Transfer taxes diminish capital for productive labour, are unequal yet certain and cheap; French controle complaints of extortion and arbitrariness.read · scan
p. 510Fee-driven registration multiplies needless and secret registers; distinguishes stamp-duties on consumption (cards, newspapers, licences) that fall on consumers.read · scan

Constitution of the United StatesVol. 43

p. 197–198Sixteenth Amendment lets Congress tax incomes from any source without apportionment among states or regard to census.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, English TraitsVol. 5

p. 376Irish members criticized for voting the income tax, an ill-judged concession relieving Irish property from burdens charged on English.read · scan

6.Taxes on commodities, customs and tolls

6a.Taxes on necessaries and luxuries

Samuel Johnson, Life of Addison, 1672-1719Vol. 27

p. 165–166Johnson estimates the Spectator's sales from the product of the stamp tax on papers, using tax revenue as a measure of circulation.read · scan

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 79Notes soap, salt, candles, leather and liquors grew dearer chiefly from taxes laid on them, though the poor consume little of them.read · scan
p. 160–161Tobacco is a principal subject of taxation in Europe; taxing it at the custom-house is easier than taxing each farm, so its cultivation is absurdly prohibited.read · scan
p. 345–346Smith argues taxes on necessaries (soap, salt, leather, candles) raise labour's price and act like a poor soil; adding more taxes to compensate is absurd.read · scan
p. 346–347Taxes on necessaries are a curse like barren earth; only rich countries like Holland bear them, prospering despite them; retaliatory duties and the Colbert tariff dispute.read · scan
p. 518Tax on necessaries raises their price and wages, so it acts like a wage tax; its final payment falls on consumers or landlords with overcharge.read · scan
p. 518–519Taxes on luxuries of the poor (tobacco, tea, spirits) do not raise wages; they act as sumptuary laws and need not reduce population.read · scan
p. 520Contrasts incidence of taxes on luxuries and necessaries; taxes on necessaries fall on landlords and rich consumers and accumulate in prices; the middling ranks should oppose them.read · scan
p. 521Describes British taxes on salt, leather, soap and candles, their rates relative to price, and how such heavy taxes on necessaries raise labourers' wages.read · scan
p. 521–522Coal tax on coastwise carriage raises subsistence cost and wages, yet yields revenue; corn bounties and import duties compared as harmful, revenueless regulations.read · scan
p. 522–523Taxes on bread and meat in Holland and elsewhere ruin manufactures by raising labour price; distinguishes annual consumer taxes from excise and customs duties on dealers.read · scan
p. 531Incidence of duties on luxuries across ranks; taxes on the common people's large aggregate expense are most productive; Walpole's excise scheme defeated by clamour.read · scan
p. 532–533Only luxuries, not necessaries, of the poor should be taxed, since taxes on necessaries fall finally on the rich; exemption of home-brewing makes excise burden unequal.read · scan
p. 534–535Transit duties; luxury taxes' unequal burden by consumption, absentee landlords escaping contribution, but voluntary payment makes them least resented.read · scan

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24

p. 311Compares direct contribution with indirect duties on consumption as a standard; argues consumption duties better track wealth, and that city-paid duties are really borne by scattered consumers and landholders.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, English TraitsVol. 5

p. 323Wordsworth opposed repealing the tax on newspapers, which reformers called a tax on knowledge, fearing a flood of base prints.read · scan

John Stuart Mill, On LibertyVol. 25

p. 294–297Argues taxing stimulants solely to restrict them is near prohibition, but fiscal taxation is inevitable and largely indirect; the State should tax what consumers can best spare, including harmful stimulants.read · scan

6b.Customs duties, drawbacks and the mercantile system

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 313–314Likens a high price of exchange to a tax that raises the price of foreign goods and so reduces their consumption.read · scan
p. 330–331Lists high duties and drawbacks of duty or excise on export as instruments of the commercial system, without examining their justice or incidence.read · scan
p. 340Uses the metaphor that a high cattle price from import restraint lays a real tax on improved districts; no actual taxation treated.read · scan
p. 344–345Argues an equal duty on foreign goods is justified when home produce is taxed; considers whether taxes on necessaries raise wages and warrant wider import duties.read · scan
p. 348Retaliatory prohibitions and duties amount to a real tax on the whole country, making citizens pay dearer for goods to benefit one class.read · scan
p. 352Notes duties on imports for revenue deferred to later treatment; duties meant to prevent importation destroy customs revenue as well as free trade.read · scan
p. 353Details British discriminatory duties on French goods (25% impost 1692, 1696, subsidies), reaching prohibitive levels, ending fair commerce and fostering smuggling.read · scan
p. 358Coinage duty: France deducts eight per cent for coinage, yielding small government revenue, while England bears the cost; effect on exchange value.read · scan
p. 371Defends drawbacks refunding excise and import duties on export, since they keep duties from distorting the natural distribution of capital and labour.read · scan
p. 372–373Drawbacks benefit customs revenue by retaining part of duty; can be pure loss in colonial trade; open to fraud; colonies' exemption from taxes questioned.read · scan
p. 376–377Smith argues the corn export bounty imposes two taxes on the people: one to fund the bounty, and a heavier one through raised home prices, burdening labourers and industry.read · scan
p. 377–378Continues the bounty analysis, calling its burden a tax on the whole people that is very burdensome to payers yet of little advantage to recipients.read · scan
p. 380Spain's tax on exporting gold and silver acts like a prohibition, adding smuggling costs; Smith argues such export tax and prohibition cannot retain the metals and harm industry.read · scan
p. 380Says the tax and prohibition on bullion export lower its value in Spain and Portugal and give other countries commercial advantage; removing them would cost nothing real.read · scan
p. 384–385Concludes the corn bounty loads public revenue with expense and imposes a very heavy tax on the whole people, without raising corn's real value.read · scan
p. 385Compares production and export bounties by the taxes they impose: a production bounty imposes only one tax and may lower prices, while an export bounty imposes a second tax.read · scan
p. 386–387Discusses taxing all industry to support a defence manufacture, calls this seldom reasonable, and explains drawbacks as refunds of duties on imported materials.read · scan
p. 410Notes high duties on exporting manufacturing materials and differential duties on colonial goods, and condemns harsh revenue laws and penalties made for monopolies.read · scan
p. 416–417Argues that although prohibiting wool export is unjust, a considerable tax on wool export would be justified, citing the sovereign's duty of equal treatment.read · scan
p. 417Proposes a moderate export tax on wool as a revenue source that burdens growers and manufacturers little, replacing prohibition and smuggling and sparing more burdensome taxes.read · scan
p. 418Export duties, small taxes and excise drawbacks on leather and cloth shown as tools of manufacturers' monopoly; tax exemptions follow lobbying power.read · scan
p. 421–422Details import and export duties on beaver skins and coals, with drawbacks, reductions and heavy export duties shaped to benefit manufacturers.read · scan
p. 424Consumers bear the tax needed to pay export bounties and high duties, and colonial expense and debt burden home consumers.read · scan
p. 458–459Argues that protecting a particular branch of trade should be paid by a moderate duty on that trade; customs duties arose to defray protection of trade and are collected by the executive.read · scan
p. 459Describes perpetual trade monopolies as taxing the other subjects twice, through high prices and exclusion, to support company waste.read · scan
p. 523–524Excise falls on home-produced luxuries; origin of customs as taxes on merchants' profits, whose burden falls on consumers; discriminatory duties on aliens and uniform duties.read · scan
p. 524History of English customs: wool and leather duties, tonnage and poundage, and successive subsidies raising duties on imports and exports.read · scan
p. 524–526Duties imposed for revenue or to regulate trade under the mercantile system; drawbacks, exemptions, and harm to sovereign's customs revenue.read · scan
p. 527–528Smith argues customs duties should be moderate and confined to revenue not monopoly; high taxes reduce consumption and encourage smuggling, so lower rates and excise-style administration yield more.read · scan
p. 529–530Reformed customs limited to few goods, adjusted to maximize revenue, would equal present yield while freeing trade, lowering labour prices, and sparing merchants advancing the tax.read · scan

Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln's First Inaugural AddressVol. 43

p. 316Lincoln pledges to hold federal property and collect the duties and imposts, using no force beyond what that requires.read · scan

Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23

p. 76Mentions strict Mexican customs revenue laws requiring cargo landing and inspection, evaded by the agent compounding with officials; the rest of the passage is about dress.read · scan

James Russell Lowell, PoemsVol. 42

p. 1372–1374Lowell's satirical Biglow stanzas mock a self-serving politician who favors a tea and coffee tax, any tax plan, and free trade so long as he profits from office and custom-houses.read · scan

Treaty with MexicoVol. 43

p. 299–300Treaty exempts US troop supplies from duties, with safeguards against fraud to protect Mexican customs revenue, and sets duty rules for goods imported during occupation.read · scan
p. 301Treaty rules on exemption of goods imported under occupation from duties, taxes and imposts, when Mexican duties apply, and no tax on exports of metals.read · scan

6c.Smuggling and the excise

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 526–527High import duties and prohibitions encourage smuggling and reduce customs revenue; taxation misused for monopoly; contributions need not tax every article.read · scan
p. 527–528Smith argues customs duties should be moderate and confined to revenue not monopoly; high taxes reduce consumption and encourage smuggling, so lower rates and excise-style administration yield more.read · scan
p. 528Describes a warehousing scheme for collecting customs duties on the model of excise, to prevent smuggling and ease the merchant's payment.read · scan
p. 538High duties encourage smuggling, ruining smugglers, corrupting respect for revenue laws, and diverting capital from productive labour to unproductive uses.read · scan
p. 539Smith compares excise and customs: officers' repeated visits make excise more vexatious and unpopular, and vexation counts as a real cost of taxes on consumables.read · scan

Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6

p. 145–147Attacks the Excise 'horse-leeches' who seize whisky stills and lament the lost Ferintosh distilling privilege, a grievance over duties on liquor.read · scan
p. 354–356Burns laments his appointment to an Excise division, searching old wives' barrels as a distasteful duty of collecting excise.read · scan
p. 459–461Burns's epigram defends excisemen by satire: landlords' rent-rolls, premiers, monarchs and priests are all 'gaugers' or excisemen, treating levying of excise as universal exaction.read · scan

6d.Tolls and user charges for public works

Marcus Tullius Cicero, Letters of CiceroVol. 9

p. 151Mentions Curio's proposed law imposing a toll of a hundred sesterces per servant on travelling retinues; only a brief, incidental reference to a levy.read · scan

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 451Proposes funding the expense of justice through regulated court fees rather than general revenue; a user-pays levy, not strictly a tax, though it bears on public revenue.read · scan
p. 452–453Proposes a stamp-duty on law proceedings to fund the courts without burdening general revenue, and notes the temptation to multiply proceedings to raise its yield.read · scan
p. 453–454Says roads, bridges, canals and harbours can be funded by tolls and port-duties on users rather than by the general revenue.read · scan
p. 454Defends tolls proportioned to weight as the most equitable tax: the consumer ultimately pays, gains more than he loses, and luxury carriages are taxed higher to relieve the poor.read · scan
p. 454–455Argues toll-funded works are built only where commerce needs them; discusses tolls as private property on canals and the Languedoc canal tolls, versus management by commissioners.read · scan
p. 456Says road tolls should be managed by trustees, not private owners; local works should be paid by local taxes, not general ones; contrasts British highway labour with the oppressive French corvées.read · scan
p. 466Concludes that turnpike tolls and péages put road costs on travellers and consumers; education may be paid by users; the shortfall is made up by general contribution.read · scan
p. 533–534Proposes lighter malt tax over heavy beer duties; discusses tolls and passage duties for road maintenance, their misuse by sovereigns, and obstruction of inland commerce.read · scan

Friedrich Schiller, William TellVol. 26

p. 406Rudenz laments that Austria's king controls markets, courts and highways, so that even the carrier's horse on the Gotthardt pays him toll; tolls shown as sign of domination.read · scan
p. 406–411Attinghausen warns that Austrian rule will set tolls on every bridge and gate, impoverishing the Swiss and draining them to fund imperial wars.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, English TraitsVol. 5

p. 467Quotes Magna Charta guaranteeing merchants passage and trade by ancient customs without any 'evil toll'; tolls limited as protection of free commerce.read · scan

Treaty with MexicoVol. 43

p. 294–295Treaty bars any tax or contribution on vessels, persons or goods navigating the Gila and Bravo, and requires both governments' consent to any navigation levy; Mexicans' property is exempt from tax.read · scan

Convention Between the United States and the Republic of PanamaVol. 43

p. 454–455Treaty exempts canal-bound vessels and ports from customs tolls, tonnage and other dues, while reserving Panama's right to collect import duties on goods for its own consumption.read · scan

7.The collection of taxes and the grievances of the collector

7a.Tax farming and the odium of collectors

Confucius, The Sayings of ConfuciusVol. 44

p. 34–35Confucius repudiates Ch'iu for enriching the powerful Chi as his tax-gatherer; condemns extortionate collection that adds to the wealth of the already rich.read · scan

Aristophanes, The FrogsVol. 8

p. 482–487Pluto sends the 'revenue-raising crew' (Nicomachus, Myrmex, Archenomus) to Hades; satirizes Athenian tax and revenue officials as rascals, but only briefly.read · scan

Luke, The Gospel According to LukeVol. 44

p. 366–367Jesus calls Levi, a publican at the toll-place, and eats with publicans; Pharisees scorn tax-collectors as sinners.read · scan

Plutarch, AristidesVol. 12

p. 103–104Aristides is said to have been fined for taking bribes as collector of the tribute from the Ionians, though the story is unproven.read · scan

Plutarch, AlcibiadesVol. 12

p. 110Alcibiades rigs an auction of the public revenue farm, defeating the farmers' scheme of paying one year's rent with the next year's profits.read · scan

Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34

p. 374–375Men aggrieved by public payments blame tax farmers and collectors rather than the remote causes, and turn against government.read · scan

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 542–543Complicated provincial revenue laws are absurd; farming taxes is wasteful and yields exorbitant profits to farmers, compared with collection directly by government officers.read · scan
p. 544Tax farmers press for severe laws against evasion; salt and tobacco farm monopolies are exorbitant, encourage smuggling and bloody punishments, though they raise much revenue.read · scan

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24

p. 271Observes the French revenue system and its collection were the most grievous part of the government, yet not administered by the nobility, who were not answerable for its vexations.read · scan

7b.Evasion, fraud and dishonest assessment

William Penn, Some Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1

p. 331The miser affects poverty to escape robbery and taxes, showing tax evasion as a miser's motive.read · scan

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 174–175King's tax on Peruvian gold fell from a fifth to a twentieth because mines couldn't bear it; gold's ease of concealment makes the tax worse paid.read · scan
p. 401Describes the Spanish crown's royalty on mine produce, a fifth of gold, which proved unpayable once plunder ended and was reduced to a twentieth.read · scan
p. 482–483Proposes lease registers with informer penalties to prevent fraud on the revenue, and heavier tax on renewal fines to discourage a harmful practice.read · scan

Robert Louis Stevenson, Samuel PepysVol. 28

p. 300–301Officials juggle to avoid direct taxation; Pepys wants to assess himself honestly at £1000 but, finding no merchant willing, stays an evader. Shows tax dishonesty and social pressure.read · scan

8.Public debt, war and the timing of taxes

See also: Wealth 13b · War and Peace 9a · Government 8b

The Instrument of GovernmentVol. 43

p. 116–117Confirms securities for debts charged on lands, the excise and other public revenue; excise mentioned only as security for debts.read · scan

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 323Notes the French war's cost was met partly by new debt and an additional two shillings land tax, but only incidentally.read · scan
p. 551Luxury-spending sovereigns cannot accumulate treasure and must call on subjects for extraordinary aid in emergencies; taxation implied as consequence rather than examined.read · scan
p. 551–552Taxes imposed at war's outbreak yield revenue only after ten or twelve months, so government must borrow; taxation's delay is the reason for debt.read · scan
p. 555Governments avoid sudden tax increases in war for fear of offending people, borrowing and funding instead so only a small tax increase is felt; taxes mortgaged to debt.read · scan
p. 556War taxes remain after peace, mortgaged to debt interest; every new tax meets murmur and opposition, so sinking funds are misapplied rather than imposing new taxes.read · scan
p. 558Compares financing expense by taxes raised within the year versus funding: effects on private revenue, capital accumulation and productive labour; funding means lighter taxes.read · scan
p. 559Paying for war by taxes within the year would make people feel the burden and end wars sooner; funding multiplies taxes and encumbers private revenue even in peace.read · scan
p. 560Land-taxes and duties on necessaries diminish landlords' revenue so they cannot make improvements, causing agricultural decline; part of the argument against public debt.read · scan
p. 560–561Taxes on necessaries and vexatious tax-gatherers drive merchants and capital to leave the country, ruining trade, manufactures and agriculture.read · scan

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24

p. 244Notes that mortgaging public revenue to creditors implies sovereign dominion over the purse, going beyond even temporary taxation; a mark of despotism.read · scan

John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25

p. 64Notes the heavy national debt and taxation from the long French war as a cause of government unpopularity and rising reform sentiment.read · scan

John Ruskin, Sesame and LiliesVol. 28

p. 130Ruskin says unjust wars financed by capitalists' loans are repaid by later taxation of a people with no say in the matter; taxation as the burden of war debt.read · scan

9.Tribute, ecclesiastical levies and tithes

9a.Tribute as the mark of conquest and subjection

Luke, The Gospel According to LukeVol. 44

p. 406Asked whether it is lawful to pay tribute to Caesar, Jesus has a denarius shown and says to render to Caesar Caesar's things.read · scan
p. 413Jesus is accused before Pilate of forbidding the giving of tribute to Caesar, making refusal of tribute a political charge.read · scan

Plutarch, CaesarVol. 12

p. 303Caesar remits one third of the tribute owed by the province of Asia as an act of favor.read · scan

Tacitus, GermanyVol. 33

p. 116Gothinians and neighbors pay tribute imposed by Sarmatians and Quadians as aliens, showing tribute as mark of subjection and disgrace.read · scan

Chapters from the KoranVol. 45

p. 958–959Footnote says non-Muslims escape abasement only by entering Islam or paying tribute to its temporal dominion; tribute is presented as the price of protection.read · scan

The Destruction of Dá Derga's HostelVol. 49

p. 225Fomorians kept as hostages to ensure they destroy neither corn nor milk beyond their fair tribute to Conaire's Ireland; tribute only incidental.read · scan

The Song of RolandVol. 49

p. 95–96Blancandrin proposes offering Charlemagne tribute of camels, hawks, mules laden with gold and silver to buy him off Spain; tribute as submission, not a tax system.read · scan
p. 114–115Charlemagne awaits Ganelon bringing tribute of the land of Spain; Marsil's gifts of gold and hostages as tribute, but only briefly treated.read · scan

Niccolò Machiavelli, The PrinceVol. 36

p. 9Advises a conqueror of a kindred province to leave laws and taxes unchanged so the new state merges quickly with the old.read · scan
p. 18Names tribute as one way to hold a formerly free city: it keeps its laws, pays tribute and is governed by a friendly few.read · scan

Martin Luther, Concerning Christian LibertyVol. 36

p. 370Christ, though free as a king's child and exempt from tribute, voluntarily pays the tax to avoid offence; Christians likewise submit to authorities out of love.read · scan

William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan EnglandVol. 35

p. 315Notes that Augustus laid tribute of glass, ivory and amber goods upon Britain, showing an ancient levy in kind.read · scan

Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of GuianaVol. 33

p. 379–380Raleigh envisions the Inca ruler yielding yearly sums and being brought to tribute under England; tribute as a conquest payment, but only incidental to the argument for conquest.read · scan

William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of DenmarkVol. 46

p. 146–148King sends Hamlet to England to demand Denmark's neglected tribute; tribute owed by a subject power, though used mainly as a pretext.read · scan

William Shakespeare, The TempestVol. 46

p. 399Antonio makes Milan pay annual tribute and homage to Naples, and Prospero's dukedom is subjected to ignoble tributary stooping; tribute as a mark of subjection.read · scan
p. 422–424Sebastian proposes killing Alfonso to free Antonio from the tribute Milan pays to Naples; tribute shown as a burden of subjection.read · scan

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 181Sicilian farmers' obligation to deliver tithe wheat to Rome at a fixed low price was reckoned a tax, distinguishing it from the higher market contract price.read · scan

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24

p. 354Peasants protest being taxed to maintain feudal dignities and rent-gatherers the Assembly has declared illegitimate; rents and levies questioned as unjust once their basis is abolished.read · scan
p. 354–355Peasants ask whether it is a right of man to pay tribute to equals; rents to landlords defended by the Assembly only to protect its confiscated property market.read · scan

Friedrich Schiller, William TellVol. 26

p. 423Fürst counsels that Swiss vassals keep paying lawful feudal dues, rent and tithe to their lords while rejecting tyranny; dues are distinguished from unjust oppression.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, English TraitsVol. 5

p. 330–331England claimed sovereignty of the sea and exacted toll and the striking of sail from other nations' ships.read · scan

9b.Tithes, annates and papal exactions

Luke, The Gospel According to LukeVol. 44

p. 386Jesus rebukes Pharisees for scrupulous tithing of herbs while neglecting justice and love of God; tithe-paying is no substitute for justice.read · scan
p. 400–401The Pharisee boasts of giving tithes of all he gets, set against the repentant publican; tithing is shown as insufficient for righteousness.read · scan

Martin Luther, Address to the Christian Nobility of the German NationVol. 36

p. 267–268Argues the clergy should not escape temporal authority, and mentions laymen's payment of tithes to priests as a service they could withhold.read · scan
p. 278–279Denounces the papal annates, half a benefice's first-year income, granted for war on the Turks but turned into a permanent tax and duty. Roman offices are paid from it.read · scan
p. 286–287Denounces Rome's revenues from indulgences, church offices and legates' collections as robbery; ecclesiastical exactions rather than taxation proper, though they are levies on Germany.read · scan
p. 313–314Calculates the burden of repeated begging by mendicant orders as blackmail on cities, beyond civil rates and taxes and Roman robberies; a levy burden argument.read · scan
p. 330Demands the Pope free Germany from his unbearable taxes and robberies, restoring liberty and wealth; papal exactions as an infringement on German freedom.read · scan
p. 331Mentions the Pope's unbearable taxes robbing Germans, as aside within argument against luxury; little development of taxation itself.read · scan

William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan EnglandVol. 35

p. 260Clergy newly promoted yield the prince a year's living as first fruits, described as a tax on benefices of ten pounds and upward.read · scan
p. 262Describes clerical tenths, first fruits and subsidies: the office collecting them, penalties for non-payment, and rates of six shillings per pound against four for laity, leaving incumbents little.read · scan
p. 262–263Clergy protest being drawn into lay fifteens, argue the realm's tax is light if widely shared, and complain their tenths, subsidies, armour and fees make their burden heavier than the laity's.read · scan

Izaak Walton, The Life of Mr. George HerbertVol. 15

p. 405–406Herbert mentions receiving tithe from a gentleman through his tenant, using it as an opening to ask about the man's faith; tithe is only the pretext.read · scan
p. 407Herbert, a parson, treats his tithes and Church dues as God's gift; he gives a tenth of tithe money and corn to the poor through his wife.read · scan

Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48

p. 256–257Notes the law that tithes could be eaten only at Jerusalem, the place God chose; tithe mentioned as a ritual rule rather than treated as a levy.read · scan

Voltaire, Letters on the EnglishVol. 34

p. 73–74Quakers were persecuted under Charles II partly for refusing to pay tithes, showing tithes as a point of conscientious resistance to church levies.read · scan
p. 78–79Notes the Anglican clergy's scrupulously exacting collection of tithes, a retained Romish practice; brief but about ecclesiastical levies.read · scan
p. 88Describes papal exactions in England: St. Peter's penny levied per house and legates sent to levy exorbitant taxes, as ecclesiastical extortion.read · scan

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 463–465Notes that school endowments draw little on general revenue, and that clergy may be supported by tithe or land tax, which dulls their zeal compared with voluntary contributions.read · scan

10.Effects of taxation on wealth, industry and liberty

William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan EnglandVol. 35

p. 233When landlords pull down cottages, the king's customary dues stay fixed, so fewer parishioners must bear the same payment; the tax burden is shifted onto the remaining households.read · scan

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality among MankindVol. 34

p. 224–225Imposts made necessary by mercenary defence under oppressive government drive the husbandman from his field; taxes as a burden of growing inequality.read · scan

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 426Notes arbitrary, degrading taxes levied on French cultivators that depressed agriculture, under Colbert's system.read · scan
p. 537Taxes on consumable commodities raise prices, discourage consumption and production, and divert national industry into less advantageous channels.read · scan
p. 540Spain's Alcavala, repeated on every sale, ruins manufactures and agriculture; Naples' lighter tax on contracts, commuted by towns, is less ruinous.read · scan
p. 541Britain's uniform taxation leaves inland trade free and aids prosperity; France's provincial gabelle, aides and traites multiply officers and burden internal commerce.read · scan
p. 545French revenue sources and proposed reforms: replace taille and capitation with more vingtiemes, make duties uniform, end tax farming to cut collection cost and vexation.read · scan
p. 546Compares French and British taxation: France raises less revenue yet its people are more oppressed by taxes than the British.read · scan
p. 547Holland's heavy taxes on necessaries have ruined manufactures; justified only after proper subjects of taxation are exhausted, owing to wars and debts.read · scan
p. 561–562Compares systems of taxation in Spain, Holland and Britain; exhausted proper subjects force improper taxes; Britain's taxes so far burden industry little but have limits.read · scan

Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6

p. 208–209Burns complains that heavy taxation fleeces Britain, and doubts Pitt's increased taxes will pay the king's debt or reduce charges.read · scan

Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21

p. 196Blames insupportable taxes, levied with cupidity and folly, along with troop conduct, for leaving Milanese land uncultivated and worsening the scarcity; shows taxation's ruinous effect on agriculture.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, English TraitsVol. 5

p. 393Notes wartime English taxed 'within an inch of their lives' yet growing richer, and the maxim that tax burden is judged by what is left, not what is taken.read · scan

See also: Wealth, Government, Justice, Constitution, Law, Labor