RIDICULOUS TAXES

Taxation has been resorted to in all developed communities to pay for public services provided by the ruler or other form of government. In the Roman Empire tax gathering was farmed out to contractors known as Publicani, who paid the State an agreed sum and then collected what they could.

In England the earliest example of the central government’s attempt to impose a national tax was the Danegeld in the 10th century. Under the Plant agenets, the monarch depended for his income partly on the revenue from the Crown lands and partly from fees collected from his principal tenants in place of the obligation to perform military service on their king’s behalf.