A measure of wealth : the English Land Tax in historical analysis / Donald E. Ginter.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ginter, Donald E.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Real property tax--England--History--Sources.

Real property tax.

Property tax--England.

Property tax.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxvi, 711 pages) : facsimiles, maps

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montreal : McGill-Queen's University Press, 1992.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Ginter focuses on the years 1780 to 1832, a period for which many land tax records survive and precisely when modern forms of political organization began to emerge and when industrialization and enclosure are thought to have altered the fabric of society and the economy. Through an examination of more than 5,000 parishes in fifteen historical counties -- approximately one-third of England -- he shows that inequalities in the burden of national taxation were far greater than anyone has estimated. Having researched both local and national taxation procedures, he reveals that, on the eve of the nineteenth-century "Revolution in Government," the tenantry and yeomanry were administratively far more independent of parliamentary statute and of their local gentry and magistracy than has previously been suggested. Drawing on evidence from the three ridings of Yorkshire, he discloses other problems associated with the land tax duplicates. While Ginter argues that the land tax duplicates are wholly inadequate for the study of the fortunes of the small yeoman and that the literature on this subject must be fundamentally reconsidered, he reveals a method which can reliably exploit the land tax duplicates as a systemic documentation. He contends that the full potential for studies based centrally on the land tax has scarcely begun to be explored.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

List of Tables

List of Maps

List of Appendices

Abbreviations

Preface

Introduction

The Role of the Land Tax in Historical Analysis

Interpreting the Structure of the Land Tax Duplicates

Minor Problems

Major Problems

Roman Catholic Double Assessment

Converting Tax Values to Acres

The Mechanisms and Terminology of Rating

The Incidence and Level of Revaluation

The Impact of Redemption

The Equitability of Assessments within Townships

The Explanation of Inequalities

The Regional and National Distribution of the Land Tax Burden

The National Distribution of the Land Tax Burden: The Traditional Evidence

Valuational Rent and Local Poundage Rates in the North Riding of Yorkshire c. 1830

A Met hod for Estimating Inequalities in the Regional and National Distribution of the Land Tax: Finding a Maximum Valuation Series

Testing the Maximum Series for Comparability: Spatial Distribution Patterns in the North, East, and West Ridings of Yorkshire

The National Distribution of the Land Tax Burden: New Estimates for 1815

Conclusions

A New Look at the Historiography of Land Tax Studies

Maps

Appendices

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-7735-6226-5