Subjects
The History of Taxation
Editor: D P O’Brien
978 1 85196 516 8: 234x156mm: £595.00/$1050.00
The eight volumes of The History of Taxation cover the literature of taxation from the late seventeenth century to the end of the nineteenth century. Taxation has been of abiding interest to economists, but the intellectual problems concerning it, as well as its immediate impact have engaged a much wider public, and contributions from a very wide range of individuals and professionals have enriched the literature.
The literature, itself the product of the historical experiences of the writers, focuses on a number of themes, reflecting in turn the problems which revenue raisers have encountered over two centuries. These include revenue shortage and the appropriate tax base; the national debt and the Sinking Fund; the introduction of income tax; the problems created by the abolition of the income tax in 1816 and the effects of its reintroduction from 1842, and the issues which subsequently arose, especially differentiation between the various sources of income, and progression.
The literature of taxation is among the most significant of all economic literature, and these volumes are designed to bring out that significance and to illustrate the perennial problems around which the discussions have revolved. Overall, this edition constitutes a collection of the key texts in the evolution of an established body of literature on public finance topics, drawing chiefly on eighteenth and nineteenth-century sources.
Contents
Volume 1
William Petty, Treatise of Taxes and Contributions (1692); Charles Davenant, Discourses on the Public Revenues, and on the Trade of England (1698, 1771 edition); Matthew Decker, Serious Considerations on the Several High Duties... (1748); David Hume, Of Taxes and of Public Credit (1752); Of Public Credit (1771); Francis Fauquier, An Essay on Ways and Means of Raising Money for the Present War (1757); James Steuart, Are Taxes a Spur to Industry... (1767); Lord Kames, General Considerations on Taxes (1774); Richard Price, An Appeal to the Public... (1774)
Volume 2
Adam Smith, Of the Funds or Sources of Revenue which may peculiarly belong to the sovereign or Commonwealth...(1789); Jeremy Bentham, Supply without Burthen...(1793); Lord Auckland, The Substance of a Speech...on the Bill for Granting Certain Duties upon Income (1799); W Friend, Principles of Taxation (1799); Lord Liverpool, Review of the Arguments...in Support of the Bill...Imposing Certain Duties upon Income (1799); Henry Beeke, Observations on the Produce of the Income Tax... (1800)
Volume 3
John Ramsay McCulloch, An Essay on a Reduction of the Interest of the National Debt... (1816); Richard Preston, A Review of the Present Ruined Condition of the Landed and Agricultural Interests... (1816); David Buchanan, Of Taxation and Of Public Debts (1817); Robert Hamilton, Examination of Dr. Price’s... (1818); Jean Baptiste Say, Of Taxation and Of National Debt (1819); David Ricardo, Funding System (1820)
Volume 4
H Wilkinson, The Principles of an Equitable and Efficient System of Finance (1820); J L Hubbersty, Brief Observations of the Necessity of the Property Tax (1820-1); Henry Parnell (Baron Congleton), Taxation, Summary of Retrenchment... (1830); Richard Heathfield, Observations occasioned by a Motion in the House of Commons... by G R Robinson... (1833); Edward Jones, Reflections on a Graduated Property and Income Tax (1833); George Poulett Scrope, Excessive and Misdirected Taxation (1833); R Hilditch, Aristocratic Taxation..., 2nd edition (1842)
Volume 5
John Matson, Income Tax, a few words to the Operative and Lower classes... (1842); Arsène-Jules-Emile Juvenal Dupuit, Translation of De la Mésure de l’utilité des travaux publique (1844); David Buchanan, Of Taxation and Direct Taxes (1844); James Silk Buckingham, Plan for an Improved Income Tax... (1845); William Ray Smee, The Income Tax: its Extension... (1846); Samuel Cobham, Direct Taxation: the Income Tax, Property Tax and Free Trade (1848); John MacPherson MacLeod, Remarks on some Popular Objections to the Income Tax (1849); Charles Babbage, Thoughts on the Principles of Taxation with Reference to a Property Tax and its Exception, 2nd edition (1851); Thomas Gisborne, Thoughts on an Income Tax and on a Property Tax... (1852); G W Hemming, Just Income Tax, How Possible (1852); John Gellibrand Hubbard, How Should an Income Tax be Levied? (1852)
Volume 6
John Coode, The Income Tax (1853); William Farr, The Income and Property Tax (1853); John Gorham Maitland, Property and Income Tax: The Present State of the Question (1853); John Gellibrand Hubbard, Reform or Reject the Income Tax... (1853); Leonard H Courteney, Direct Taxation, an Enquiry (1860); John Ramsay McCulloch, An Article, Practical and Theoretical on Taxation (1860); Leslie Thomas Edward Cliffe, Income Tax Reform (1862)
Volume 7
William Lucas Sargant, An Undiscriminating Income Tax Reconsidered (1862); John Ramsay McCulloch, Taxes on Property and Income (1863); Samuel Morton Peto, Survey of the Subject and Property and Income Tax (1863); George Warde Norman, Examination of some Prevailing Opinions as to the Pressure of Taxation in This and Other Countries (1864); John Stuart Mill, Of the General Principles of Taxation... (1871)
Volume 8
Fleeming Jenkin, On the Principles which Regulate the Incidence of Taxes (1871-2); P Hallett, The Income Tax Question (1874); Leone Levi, On the Reconstruction of the Income and Property Tax (1874); Arnold Jacob Cohen-Stuart, On Progressive Taxation (1889); Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman, The Theory of Progressive Taxation (1893); Knut Wicksell, A New Principle of Just Taxation (1896); Francis Ysidro Edgeworth, The Pure Theory of Taxation (1897); Edwin Cannan, Equity and Economy in Taxation (1901); Gustave Cassel, The Theory of Progressive Taxation (1901); Thomas Nixon Carver, The Minimum Sacrifice Theory of Taxation (1904)
Reviews
'Beyond the exceptional scholarly merits of this collection, the volumes are nicely produced and indexed – the latter often a rarity in collections of this type...no one interested in the history of public finance or the economic role of government will want to be without access to them. Both the editor and the publisher should be congratulated for making these often hard-to-find works readily available to a wider audience.’
– Steven G Medema, Journal of the History of Economic Thought