Events

Abstract: State capacity in England – the ability to raise revenue through taxation, borrowing or loans - grew from the Civil War but especially after the Glorious Revolution. In this paper we focus on an understudied part of the tax system, the land tax, arguing that it has been both misjudged and maligned. In reality, the land tax transformed a central mandate into a local one, with local agents quickly, effectively, and at low cost, moving large sums of money to the central government. The land tax comprised two components: a property component and a wealth component. Using the tax records of the 25,000 households in the City of London in each year, we examine migration into and out of city wards to investigate not only allocation of the tax quota by ward but also the extent of tax avoidance or tax shifting by long term residents onto the recently arrived. Matching joint-stock company share ownership, which was taxable wealth, to names of heads of households, we generate a measure the extent of wealth tax evasion, an otherwise very opaque arena. We find both tax shifting and tax evasion by male and female household heads.

The Economic and Social History series for Hilary Term 2021 is convened by Stephen Broadberry and Mattia Bertazzini.

For more information on this or any of the seminars in the series, please contact stephen.broadberry@nuffield.ox.ac.uk.