Taxation In Colonial America (ebook)

Argumento de Taxation In Colonial America (ebook)

Taxation in Colonial America examines life in the thirteen original American colonies through the revealing lens of the taxes levied on and by the colonists. Spanning the turbulent years from the founding of the Jamestown settlement to the outbreak of the American Revolution, Alvin Rabushka provides the definitive history of taxation in the colonial era, and sets it against the backdrop of enormous economic, political, and social upheaval in the colonies and Europe.

Rabushka shows how the colonists strove to minimize, avoid, and evade British and local taxation, and how they used tax incentives to foster settlement. He describes the systems of public finance they created to reduce taxation, and reveals how they gained control over taxes through elected representatives in colonial legislatures. Rabushka takes a comprehensive look at the external taxes imposed on the colonists by Britain, the Netherlands, and Sweden, as well as internal direct taxes like poll and income taxes. He examines indirect taxes like duties and tonnage fees, as well as county and town taxes, church and education taxes, bounties, and other charges. He links the types and amounts of taxes with the means of payment--be it gold coins, agricultural commodities, wampum, or furs--and he compares tax systems and burdens among the colonies and with Britain.

This book brings the colonial period to life in all its rich complexity, and shows how colonial attitudes toward taxation offer a unique window into the causes of the revolution.

"Written for the average layperson without a detailed knowledge of history or taxation, the book is certain to become a standard in the field."--Stephanie Towery, Law Library Journal

"A significant contribution. There is no other book like this one. It is a grand synthesis of mountains of previous work and colonial records. It pulls together a vast amount of scholarship of the past century or two, and in a convenient and accessible way. For anyone doing serious work on colonial taxation, it is the one book to have."--Richard Sylla, New York University

"Encyclopedic and definitive. I was deeply impressed by the wealth of detail quite unknown to me. This is the fruit of intensive and extensive scholarship."--Niall Ferguson, Harvard University

"Makes an enormously significant contribution to scholarship on the British North American colonies. Every university with an active graduate program, plus all the major independent research centers, should add this jewel to their library holdings. Alvin Rabushka has produced an astonishing and overwhelming labor of love, and colonial historians will remain forever in the author's debt for his prodigious research on the various tax systems in the thirteen colonies from 1607 through 1775. . . . This handsomely produced volume could become the standard reference on colonial taxation for the next thousand years. Yes, that long."--Edward J. Perkins, Journal of American History

"Rabushka's work is encyclopedic in scope, thorough and fastidious in its mobilization of both tax-history scholarship and primary sources on colonial finance, and probing in its analysis of budgets and taxes. His mastery and crystal-clear explanations of previously baffling intricacies of colonial taxation means that his book is now the best starting point for anyone interested in the colonial foundations of American taxation."--W. Elliot Brownlee, Harvard Business History Review

"The volume is one that scholars will find enduringly useful."--American Historical Review

"Alvin Rabushka has written an extraordinary history of early American taxation. Weighing in at 3 pounds, 5 ounces, and running to almost 1,000 pages, it's a big book. But it needs to be, for this is historical work on a grand scale. Rabushka has managed to compress into a single volume a detailed history of the colonial tax systems between the settlement of Jamestown and the beginning of the Revolutionary War. It's an extraordinary accomplishment."--Joseph J. Thorndike, Tax Notes

"[T]hanks to Rabushka's work, more can now be done on the history of trans-Atlantic connections. The originality of this book is in its mastery of the printed secondary and primary works, thus offering the most definitive resource to date on the subject of taxation in colonial America."--William J. Ashworth, Enterprise & Society

"This massive compendium of colonial American tax data draws together disparate primary and secondary sources in an impressive feat of scholarship. It provides an encyclopedic account of taxation in all thirteen colonies from the onset of European colonization to the American Revolution."--Roger Hewett, EH.net0List of Illustrations xi
Preface and Acknowledgments xvii
Introduction 1

Part One: Founding the American Colonies 19
Chapter 1: The First Wave 23
Chapter 2: The Middle Wave 42
Chapter 3: The Th ird Wave 56
Appendix: List of Tax Incentives in Founding and Settlement of the American Colonies 64

Part Two: Turmoil in England--Growth in the Colonies, 1607-1688 65
Chapter 4: Constitutional Government and Politics in En gland, 1607-1688 71
Chapter 5: Imperial Governance: Constitutional and Commercial Policy, 1607-1688 92
Chapter 6: The Colonial Constitution, 1607-1688 118
Chapter 7: Taxation of the New En gland Colonies, 1620-1688 144
Chapter 8: Taxation of the Middle Colonies, 1624-1688 199
Chapter 9: Taxation of the Southern Plantation Colonies, 1607-1688 228
Appendix: Taxation in the American Colonies, 1688 267

Part Three: War in Europe--Opportunity in the Colonies, 1688-1714 271
Chapter 10 Constitutional Government and Politics in En gland, 1688-1714 275
Chapter 11: Imperial Governance: Constitutional and Commercial Policy, 1688-1714 301
Chapter 12: The Colonial Constitution, 1688-1714 325
Chapter 13: Taxation of the New En gland Colonies, 1688-1714 355
Chapter 14: Taxation of the Middle Colonies, 1688-1714 399
Chapter 15: Taxation of the Southern Plantation Colonies, 1688-1714 416
Appendix: Tax Burdens in the American Colonies, 1714 437

Part Four: Salutary Neglect in the Colonies, 1714-1739 441
Chapter 16: Imperial Governance and the Colonial Constitution, 1714-1739 445
Chapter 17: Taxation of the New En gland Colonies, 1714-1739 454
Chapter 18: Taxation of the Middle Colonies, 1714-1739 490
Chapter 19: Taxation of the Southern Plantation Colonies, 1714-1739 519
Appendix: Taxes in the American Colonies, 1739 556

Part Five: War, Debt, Money, and Taxes: Prelude to Imperial Intervention, 1739-1763 559
Chapter 20: Imperial Governance and the Colonial Constitution, 1739-1763 563
Chapter 21: Taxation of the New En gland Colonies, 1739-1763 575
Chapter 22: Taxation of the Middle Colonies, 1739-1763 624
Chapter 23: Taxation of the Southern Plantation Colonies, 1739-1763 657

Part Six: An American Tax, 1763-1775 713
Chapter 24: British Politics, Imperial Governance, and Colonial Government and Politics, 1763-1775 717
Chapter 25: British Taxation of the American Colonies, 1763-1775 749
Chapter 26: Taxation of the New En gland Colonies, 1763-1775 766
Chapter 27: Taxation of the Middle Colonies, 1763-1775 797
Chapter 28: Taxation of the Southern Plantation Colonies, 1763-1775 826

Conclusion 865
Appendix 871
Bibliography 891
Index 915