The Attacks of the Tax

      With the deadline for taxes coming in just a few days, I thought I would ponder the very concept of taxation.  Taxes are never enjoyed (except by those who get to collect them), but are rather  endured.  Rebellions and full out revolutions have been caused by them.  There seems to be a magic endurance level, which if exceeded those being taxed go berserk.  Therefore that is called excessive taxation.
      Taxes are in a unique club of two things from which you can't escape - taxes and death.  That makes sense, because taxes are almost as old as death.  That particular profession which is often called "the oldest profession" actually isn't the oldest, for the tax collector was the oldest profession.  I'm pretty sure that "employees" of the 2nd oldest profession had their wages (or services) taxed by those of the true oldest profession.
      Throughout history, the tax collector was disliked absolutely hated, and they were rarely invited around for dinner.  That's why people were so shocked when Jesus attended one of their banquets, and even chose one of them to be an apostle (Matthew did have to quit his job to become one though).  The highly religious, nose-in-the-air Pharisees of Roman era Israel were certain that a tax collector could not ever go to heaven.  Back in the day hillbillies would shoot at "revenuers" who were coming to shut down their stills.
      The Boston Tea Party, and eventually the American Revolution was a reaction of the British Colonies here to being taxed.  Up until that point they hadn't been taxed at all.  That was the basic policy England had.  The colonies wouldn't be burdened with taxes in order to grow and become successful.  Once they had become successful, though they were to be taxed just like all the other British citizens.  By the early 1750's the colonies were just about successful enough for the British government to start thinking about introducing a tax or two to these overseas citizens.  When a young British Colonel in the colonies tried to make a name for himself and attacked a French fort (very unsuccessfully), and subsequently brought the Seven Years War to North America, the idea of taxing the British colonial citizens was firmly clinched in the minds of Parliament (Oh Colonel Washington, what hast thou done?).

 This is how successful Colonel Washington's attack on Fort DuQuesne was.

The colonies weren't angry about excessive taxes.  They were angry about having any taxes at all.  Previously they had no taxes at all, and their brethren in England had to bear the burden of it all for them.  It began with a tax on legal documents (which went over like a pregnant pole-vaulter), then they tried a tax on tea which was also a failure.  The spokesmen for the Colonies said that if they were to be taxed like any other British citizen then they should have a representative or two in Parliament (at least in the House of Commons) like any other British citizen, and that member of Parliament should be me.  Washington actually fancied being a member of the House of Lords, whereas the others would have merely liked to have been in the House of Commons.  "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss." (It's ironic that I quoted a British band, The Who, for this)  Mad King George, who went through many bouts of insanity, completely rejected their requests for Parliamentary representation. 

      Taxes not only brought on the Revolution, but the problem of taxes is what created the United States as we know it.  After the Treaty of Paris, thus ending the war, the former colonies (the southern ones - the six northern colonies remained loyal and never joined in the Revolution, and became the provinces of Canada) became thirteen separate nations.  Each one had their own taxes on imports, or tariffs.  In the summer of 1787 representatives from each nation-state met to create a free trade agreement (Traders had to pay a tariff to bring goods across what today would be state lines - if you had to get something from Vermont to Boston, for instance, that could be quite expensive).  They came back instead with a series of documents that dissolved the individual nationhood status of the former rebellious colonies, and created one single nation out of them all.  The common people were glad to get a Constitution and Bill of Rights out of the deal, but they were still a little miffed about losing their individual nationhood status.  Oh well.
      Taxes were the first order of business for the new government.  It was a lack of taxes that became the final push to unify all the separate nations in the first place.  None of these nations had paid on their war debt to France.  Their next step was to figure out who they could tax to pay for it.  If they taxed the populous cities they might have a new revolution.  They settled on taxing the grain farmers from the Hudson River Valley and from western Pennsylvania.  Shipping grain was expensive, but converting that grain to whiskey made shipping easier and cheaper.  A nine cent per gallon tax was imposed on whiskey.  That might not sound like much, but a single penny then would buy you a night's stay at an inn, a meal, and a half dozen ales.  Today that would be the equivalent of about $100 or so.  This tax then was the equivalent of about $900 per gallon.  These grain farmers were intended to bear the entire burden of the US debt to France.  Again with the visual; that went over like a pregnant pole-vaulter.  These farmers simply couldn't pay this tax as the tax was much higher than the worth of the whiskey.  President Washington sent a regiment up there under "White Horse" Harry Lee (grandfather of Robert E.) to collect.  There wasn't really anything to collect, but he came back from the campaign, having victoriously crushed the "rebellion."
      In the broad scope of things these incidents are considered modern events.  The first taxes were in goods and services for the most part, as money hadn't even been invented yet.  Although the first cities, such as Asikli Hoyuk and Catal Hoyuk,  were somewhat commune like, those who grew food would have to plant extra to put into public storage.  Those who were craftsmen were taxed in their crafts.  They would spend time making a government building, make extra beakers for the king, extra chairs, extra carts, or extra chamber pots - whatever.  Over time the government decided that they had plenty enough chamber pots so they had to figure out a more universal mode of collecting.  "When you make a chamber pot, and you trade it, you have to give us some of what you trade it for."  they said.  Sometimes what they traded the camber pots for wasn't something the government wanted either.  So initially jewelry became an accepted medium of trade (which the Norse did right up through the end of the 1200's - they traded with rings), and then it was finally coins.

      Coins were the normal medium of trade and the normal form of taxation right up to the present, but goods and services prevailed in places and times of economic depression.  The tithings of Old Testament Israel were really a series of taxes.  There was Temple tax, Priest tax, and some other tithe.  On top of that besides the required tithe/tax, there was the free will tithe.  For that you paid however much you wanted to pay, much like the collection plate in church is supposed to be today.  In all the required tithes added up to about 30% of a man's income.  The people of Israel told Samuel one day that they wanted a king.  They were like, "The people of all the other countries think we're weird because we don't have a king.  Some of them don't even want to trade with us, because they think we're so weird.  Could we please have a king like all the other countries?"  Samuel flew into a tirade, and explained to them that a king would tax them even more - above that of the required tithes.  "They will take your sons and your daughters and your horses and the food off your tables."  They didn't listen.
      In Anglo-Saxon England, money was scarce, so once again people were taxed in mostly goods and services (the Church got most of the coins).  Instead of a tax to buy a military, every village had its couple weeks of service, wherein they would send a specified number of men to serve in the "Fyrd," the standing army.  The village blacksmith provided their weapons, and the village storehouse provided their men's food for while they were gone.  Government building projects were accomplished in the same way.

      Does knowing all this make paying your taxes any easier?  No, but at least you know who to blame.