Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 91, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1910 — Taxes in Old England. [ARTICLE]

Taxes in Old England.

For taxes out of the common one must turn back to the days of George 111., tjjp London Chronicle says. For in the reign of that monarch one was almost forced to “die beyond one’s means.” The army and the navy were in urgent need of money, and the chancellor was at his wits’ end. He thought df the dead and gravely suggested a tax on coffins. Which proposal recalls the day when one could not be born without involving a proud parent in a tax. A graduated tax. The birth of an eldest son, for instance, cost a duke as much as £3O, whereas a cottager was forced to pay only 2 shillings. To be born with a silver spoon in the mouth cost money In those days. Not only was there once a 'tax on. hair powder, but hair itself has been called upon to pay its due share to the revenue. For.beards were, at various times, taxed in England. Henry VIII. graduated his levy according to the status of the wearer, of Canterbury, for instance, having to pay 3s 4d for his beard, and Elizabeth fixed the same sum for every beard of over a fortnight’s growth..