TAX 



119 



TAX 



uded of them in some church, whence it was taken by 

 the king's officers. In this expedient the whole ecclesias- 

 tical body acquiesced, and thus yielded up their spiritual 

 privileges, under coercion by the temporal power. 



At the Reformation, the chief source of revenue to the 

 pope, viz., first-fruits and tenths, was transferred to the 

 king ' for more augmentation and maintenance of the royal 

 estate of his imperial crown and dignity of supreme head 

 of the church of England.' (Stat. 26 Henry VIII., c. 3.) 

 In order to collect this revenue a court of first-fruits was 

 established, and the king ordered a valuation to be made 

 of all the episcopal sees and benefices in England. The 

 book which contains this valuation is called the ' Liber 

 Regis,' and all the benefices which have not since been 

 exempted still pay first-fruits and tenths according to this 

 valuation. The first-fruits and tenths continued to form 

 part of the royal revenue until Queen Anne, by the Act 

 2 & 3 of her reign, c. 11, gave up the proceeds thereof on 

 the part of herself and her successors, and assigned them 

 for ever to the augmentation of poor livings. 



It now only remains to notice more particularly the prac- 

 tice of taxing the clergy in convocation, which continued 

 in full force till the reign of Charles II. It had aft'orded 

 the kings of England a lucrative revenue from the church. 

 Their influence as heads of the church, and as having 

 zcclesiastical preferments to bestow, was very great alter 

 .he Reformation, and enabled them very commonly to 

 obtain larger subsidies from the convocation than those that 

 were voted by parliament. The church therefore was not un- 

 willing to be deprived of the expensive privilege of voting 

 separate subsidies ; and acquiesced in an arrangement pro- 

 posed in 1664-5, by which the Commons have ever since 

 voted taxes upon the possessions of the church and of the 

 clergy, in the same manner as upon the laity. As a boon for 

 ibmission of the church to temporal authority, two sub- 

 s-idies which the convocation had granted were remitted, 

 and the parochial clergy were allowed to vote at elections. 

 [CLERGY ; CONVOCATION ; TITHES.] 



TAXES. The general objects, character, and principles 

 of taxation, and of different classes of taxes, are treated of 

 under the head of TAX, TAXATION. In this place it is 

 proposed to give a short summary of the amount and de- 

 scription of [axel paid in this and some other countries, 

 whether assessed directly upon property, or collected indi- 

 rectly upon articles of consumption ; including not only 

 such taxes as are paid to the general government, but also 

 all municipal and local assessments or contributions. 



United Kingdom. 



The chief sources of revenue are froYn indirect taxes, as 

 will be seen by the following statement, made up to 5th 

 January, 1842: 



Customs . 



-i- . 



Stamps . . 



eased, &c.) 



]'o>t -Office 



Duties on Pensions 

 and Salaries . 



Crown Lands . 



Small branches of he- 

 reditary revenue . 



Surplus fees of public 

 offices . 



Oral Rewipt. 







23,82 1,480 



15.477.<i7 



7.404,239 



4,73) 457 



1,539,274 



6,752 



438,297 



5,562 

 93,501 



Rate per cent, at 



which collected. 





 5 

 6 



2 



4 



60 



1 

 8 



s. 

 6 

 7 

 3 

 2 

 9 



17 

 is 



d. 

 4 



4 

 9V 



Total ordinary revenues 53.59<>,250 6 13 8J 



To these parliamentary taxes may be added the follow- 

 ing local assessments : 



Poor-rates . 6,351,828 (which includes county 



rates, TOO.OOW.) 

 600,000 (in round numbers). 

 1,312,812 



Crn>rch-rat( s . . 

 Hiirhway-rates . 

 Turnpike-tolls .Eng- 

 land and Wales) . 

 Grand-jury present- 

 i (In 



ments (Ireland) 



1,577,764 



1,265,PG6 



Total of local taxes. 11,108,270 



, 1SJ9 (562), 1841 (344) (421), 



1842 (138) (296 



These include all the local taxes of which any account 



can be given, but there are still many others, such as rates 



or paving, lighting, and watching particular cities and 



owns, and for other municipal purposes. It may also be 



added that the tithes of Great Britain and Ireland amount 



o 4,000,000/. 



It is instructive to compare the present amount of taxes 

 vith that rendered necessary by a war expenditure. From 

 1805 to 1818 the payments into the British exchequer from 

 axes and loans in no one year amounted to less than 

 100,000,000^., and in 1813 arose to the enormous and 

 icarcely credible sum of 176,346,0237. 



Denmark. 



The total amount of all state and provincial or country 

 commune taxes amounted in 1841 to 2,020,000/., upon a 

 population of 2,100,000. 



Sweden. 

 The state taxes amount to . . 753,404 



Provincial 522,720 



Municipal Stockholm . . . 28,035 

 All other towns .... 50,675 



Total . . 1,354,834 

 Kingdom of the Netherlands. 

 Total of government and provincial taxes 5,368,874 



France. 



Direct contributions for the state . . 11,433,204 



for the provinces . 2,743,131 



for the communes 337,918 



Additional 27.948 



Total . 



Indirect taxes for the state . 

 Miscellaneous items .... 

 Other sources of revenue . 



. 15,842,184 



. 29,544,203 



453,738 



585,600 



General total . . 46,425,725 



Saxony. 

 The state taxes are : 



Prussian Hollars. 



Direct . . . 1.063,584 

 Indirect . . 1,709,610 



2,073,194 or 310,929 



Wirtcmli 



State taxes . . . 534,445 

 Provincial and municipal . 100,938 



Total . 

 Baden. 



State taxes : 

 Direct . 

 Indirect . 



635,383 



158,333 

 344,000 



Total . 502,333 



Bavaria. 

 Direct state taxes 

 Indirect . 



Which, with other sources of income, 

 produce a revenue of 



Sdrdmfa. 

 State taxes : 



Direct . . . 500,264 

 Indirect . . . 1,090,000 



511,407 

 895,119 



2,501,039 



Total . . 1,590,264 

 Pome (Papal Slates). 

 State taxes : 



Direct . 497,413 



Indirect and Miscellaneous . 1,261,989 



Kingdom of Naples and Sirilij. 

 Naples --State taxes (exclusive of Sicily) 3,994,957 

 Municipal taxes 



Total 



Sicily : Direct state taxes 

 Indirect . i 



155,267 



Total 

 Municipal taxes 



4.150.22-1 

 232^00 

 630,639 



862.86!! 

 1,163,212 



