A Measure of Wealth

by Ginter, Donald E.

• ISBN13: 9780773507296
• ISBN10: 0773507299
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1992-02-01
• Publisher: McGill Queens Univ

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.

Table of Contents

List of Tables
List of Maps
List of Appendices
Abbreviations
Preface
Illustrations
Introduction
The Role of the Land Tax in Historical Analysis	p. 3
Interpreting the Structure of the Land Tax Duplicates
Minor Problems	p. 13
Major Problems	p. 30
Roman Catholic Double Assessment	p. 52
Converting Tax Values to Acres	p. 76
The Valuational Basis of the Land Tax Within Townships
The Mechanisms and Terminology of Rating	p. 107
The Incidence and Level of Revaluation	p. 115
The Impact of Redemption	p. 123
The Equitability of Assessments within Townships	p. 133
The Explanation of Inequalities	p. 139
The Regional and National Distribution of the Land Tax Burden
The National Distribution of the Land Tax Burden: The Traditional Evidence	p. 155
Valuational Rent and Local Poundage Rates in the North Riding of Yorkshire c. 1830	p. 160
A Method for Estimating Inequalities in the Regional and National Distribution of the Land Tax: Finding a Maximum Valuation Series	p. 171
Testing the Maximum Series for Comparability: Spatial Distribution Patterns in the North, East, and West Ridings of Yorkshire	p. 201
The National Distribution of the Land Tax Burden: New Estimates for 1815	p. 248
Conclusions
A New Look at the Historiography of Land Tax Studies	p. 265
Maps	p. 293
Appendices	p. 335
Notes	p. 653
Bibliography	p. 693
Index	p. 705
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