Taxation in Colonial America

Front Cover
Princeton University Press, 2008 M02 24 - 946 pages

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.

 

Contents

Founding the American Colonies
19
The First Wave
23
The Middle Wave
42
The Third Wave
56
List of Tax Incentives in Founding and Settlement of the American Colonies
64
Turmoil in EnglandGrowth in the Colonies 16071688
65
Constitutional Government and Politics in England 16071688
71
Imperial Governance Constitutional and Commercial Policy 16071688
92
Imperial Governance and the Colonial Constitution 17141739
445
Taxation of the New England Colonies 17141739
454
Taxation of the Middle Colonies 17141739
490
Taxation of the Southern Plantation Colonies 17141739
519
Taxes in the American Colonies 1739
556
War Debt Money and Taxes Prelude to Imperial Intervention 17391763
559
Imperial Governance and the Colonial Constitution 17391763
563
Taxation of the New England Colonies 17391763
575

The Colonial Constitution 16071688
118
Taxation of the New England Colonies 16201688
144
Taxation of the Middle Colonies 16241688
199
Taxation of the Southern Plantation Colonies 16071688
228
Taxation in the American Colonies 1688
267
War in EuropeOpportunity in the Colonies 16881714
271
Constitutional Government and Politics in England 16881714
275
Imperial Governance Constitutional and Commercial Policy 16881714
301
The Colonial Constitution 16881714
325
Taxation of the New England Colonies 16881714
355
Taxation of the Middle Colonies 16881714
399
Taxation of the Southern Plantation Colonies 16881714
416
Tax Burdens in the American Colonies 1714
437
Salutary Neglect in the Colonies 17141739
441
Taxation of the Middle Colonies 17391763
624
Taxation of the Southern Plantation Colonies 17391763
657
An American Tax 17631775
713
British Politics Imperial Governance and Colonial Government and Politics 17631775
717
British Taxation of the American Colonies 1763775
749
Taxation of the New England Colonies 17631775
766
Taxation of the Middle Colonies 17631775
797
Taxation of the Southern Plantation Colonies 17631775
826
CONCLUSION
865
APPENDIX
871
BIBLIOGRAPHY
891
INDEX
915
Copyright

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About the author (2008)

Alvin Rabushka is the David and Joan Traitel Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. His books include The Flat Tax.

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