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Chances are – that is, if you are not quite into accounting or if you find the basics of of economics a daunting concept to take on – the very mention of taxation would make you want to curl up shivering under a blanket, waiting for it to go away because you’d really not deal with it. The upside is, you’re not really alone – there are hundreds, even thousands of people, even, who know exactly how you feel about taxes because they too are terrified of the very concept. Nevertheless, taxation is an essential aspect of society and governance; without it, we cannot expect to receive the public benefits that are offered to us. Given this, there should be at the very least some attempts for us to understand a little bit more about taxation – and what better way to understand taxation than to have a peek at the history of taxation all over the world?

To be sure, taxation has been – for the last two thousand and five hundred years, as far as we know – defined by two very important elements: the taxed and the object of taxation. In the early years of taxation the taxed very obviously consisted of the lower classes of citizen. Those would be the slaves, the peasants, the conquered, the colony locals – in effect, the poor were taxed by the rich and powerful so the rich and powerful may remain rich and powerful. The object of taxation – what is taxed – tend to be incredibly arbitrary; that is to say, whatever is deemed valuable by the ruling classes at that time will most definitely be taxed.

One of the earliest known instances of taxation in the Western World happened to be in Egypt. Of course, back then when pharaohs reigned supreme, tax collectors were not known as tax collectors – they were called scribes. At one point, the scribes decided that they would impose a tax on cooking oil (the reasons are unclear now, but it may have had something to do with cooking oil being a rare luxury that should mostly belong to the royals and nobles), and would therefore audit households on a regular basis to make sure that the citizens were not consuming more cooking oil than what was allowed.

The Athenians in Greece also had tax that they levied on the citizens for the purposes of financing battles and wars. Called eisphora, this particular tax happened to exempt no one – this may have been an example of the first inklings of the modern, democratic system of taxation that they will be enjoying now. After the emergency that is war, this particular tax is often stopped and – if there are spoils of war – refunded to the people. Apart from this special tax, the Athenians had metoikion, which is a tax paid by individuals who did not have at least one Athenian parent (in short, metoikion is a tax paid by foreigners). The metoikion is more expensive for the men, of course, as men are expected to have a livelihood at the time when women were not.

In Roman Empire taxation, the earliest taxes were imposed on imports and exports (this was called portoria), which was of course obvious considering the vast territories belonging to the Empire and the range of trading that this resulted in. Taxation in the Roman Empire is believed to have been one of the most polished in the earlier history of taxation – the taxes funded much of the Empire’s needs and wants.

It was even said that the Roman Empire spawned one of the greatest tax strategists of the era – Caesar Augustus. It was said that while Julius Caesar imposed a one percent tax rule on all items being sold, it was Caesar Augustus who raised the sales tax on slaves from one percent to four percent while maintaining the one percent tax on everything else. Caesar Augustus, as “First Citizen”, abolished the central government’s publicani as the tax collectors of the Empire and instead instituted a taxation system wherein tax collecting will be handled by the local government (Saint Matthew is a known tax collector of this “new” system during the reign of Augustus). On top of this, Caesar Augustus also created the inheritance tax, which was essentially for the purpose of providing a stable retirement fund for the soldiers of their army. This tax was supposedly five percent of all inheritances with the exclusion of anything that can be regarded as a gift to a child or to a wife or husband).

Of course, the system was still not perfect, as tax collectors – whether or not they come from the central government – could be expected to feel some sort of pull towards corruption, which in turn would cause problems. It has been an accepted detail, for example, that one of the reasons why Queen Boadicea of East Anglia revolted in 60 A.D., seizing London and becoming responsible for the death of more than eighty thousand people with her army of two hundred and thirty thousand before her actions were ultimately halted by Emperor Nero, who then revamped the government of the British Isles.

That being said, it really shouldn’t be a surprise that the first tax in England was during the time that it was part of the Roman Empire. When the Empire of Rome finally succumbed to ruin, the Saxon kings were quick to move and imposed what is called a Danegeld. The Danegeld was essentially a land and property tax that was originally used to pay off the Danes (thus, the name Danegeld) who wanted to raid their lands. Later on, the Danegeld was used to fund the Saxon armies – which were, at the time very important in terms of not only defending the people, but conquering their enemies. The Danegeld essentially costs two shillings for every one hundred to one hundred and twenty acres of land, and was first levied in 868 A.D. and 871 A.D. before it became a regular tax during the reign of Aethelred during the late tenth century to the early eleventh century until it was changed by William the Conqueror. Apart from the Danegeld, taxation was also applied to customs duties during this time.

It is interesting to note, by the way, that the titillating image of Lady Godiva – the naked woman riding on a horse – was, according to legend, brought forth by an eleventh century issue of taxes. According to lore, Earl Leofric of Mercia, husband to Lady Godiva, promised that he will lower the sky-high taxes that he imposed on Coventry when his wife agrees to ride around the town naked.

Part of the history of taxation in England involved the One Hundred Years War against France, which started in 1337 and ended in 1453. Apparently, it really kind of died down for a bit, but the nobles of Aquitaine incited a rebellion in 1369 over unfair policies of taxation under the rule of Edward the Black Prince. That isn’t to say, however, that taxation in England at that point had not evolved; in fact, tax policies during the fourteenth century in England were thought of to be very progressive. For example, in 1377 a Poll tax was established wherein the Duke of Lancaster was infamously required to pay a tax that is worth five hundred and twenty times the tax that a common peasant is asked to pay.

These early progressive taxing schemes included income tax, which was levied on the upper classes – this includes the rich, the clergy and those who hold a place in high office – and a tax on movable property, which merchants were required to pay. The peasants and the poor, at this point, were not expected to pay any taxes; and even if they were, the amounts were hardly substantial.

These progressive taxes were said to be inspired by the King’s Writ, which stated that each person (excluding minors) should be taxed based on their status and their means. Not that there wasn’t any trouble to be had over taxation at this point either – it resulted in a problem between King Charles the First and the Parliament in 1629 regarding the rights of taxation afforded the King and the rights of Taxation afforded the Parliament. This unfortunately culminated in Kings Charles the First being beheaded for treason.

There are of course, other taxes that were implemented at this point: there were excise taxes and taxes based on property and the ownership of land. The excise taxes included the one imposed by Parliament in 1643 on essential items like food (meat, grains, and the like); this particular tax was used to fund Oliver Cromwell’s army. Unfortunately, the taxes such as this which were imposed by the Parliament tended to be regressive rather than progressive; they took more money – especially from the poor – than the King did, so much so that the oppressed masses rose up in riotous protest in 1647. This 1647 riot was incited by the fact that the taxes at that point were so high that a laborer’s family of four would not be able to buy enough wheat to be sustained.

It would not be until the nineteenth century that certain progressions in the history of taxation began to take shape as the beginnings of taxation as we know it today. In 1800, the British created a modern means of taxation in order to finance their war against Napoleon; it was repealed in 1816 after the war ended, but it seeded the future of taxation.

Obviously, even through the evolution of that which we call taxation, we cannot help but encounter problems with certain impositions and implementations because, in the end, those who impose and implement them are human and are prone to ambition. However, the evolution of taxation, through the very history of taxation, has brought forth the ideas democracy and tax reforms – that which allows us to have form of control over how much we would pay and the tax payoffs that we are given the benefit of enjoying.

Taxation in the past may be something that we should be worried about, what with all the injustice it had been steeped in. But taxation today, with all the concessions that allow for the many rights of man, is nothing at all to feel trepidation about.