IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/streco/v41y2017icp13-28.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The importance of direct taxation to the Fiscal-military state in Early Modern Britain

Author

Listed:
  • Pierpoint, Stephen John

Abstract

Two taxes, introduced in 1643, became cornerstones of early modern English supply. Whereas that bureaucratic indirect tax, the excise, seems a natural part of a centralised and institutional Fiscal-military state, the Assessment appears mired in ancient practice. Yet this new tax was far heavier and more successful than any predecessor. This study attempts to explain that success, which continued as the eighteenth-century Land Tax, and proposes it was founded on well-designed administrative process and routine, engineered to tap rent-flows from an increasingly commercialised real estate sector. It was facilitated by effective and well-established local governors who had appropriate authority, capabilities and experience to operate that process, not always perfectly or fairly, but remarkably effectively for the state’s purposes. Members of Parliament bore a significant administrative burden as centre came to locality in a most direct way to ensure national coordination and shared ownership of fiscal success between London and locality.

Suggested Citation

  • Pierpoint, Stephen John, 2017. "The importance of direct taxation to the Fiscal-military state in Early Modern Britain," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 13-28.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:41:y:2017:i:c:p:13-28
    DOI: 10.1016/j.strueco.2016.12.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0954349X16301618
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.strueco.2016.12.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:41:y:2017:i:c:p:13-28. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/525148 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.