Appleton's Popular Science Monthly, Vol. 52: November, 1897, to April, 1898 (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Inhaltsangabe

Excerpt from Appleton's Popular Science Monthly, Vol. 52: November, 1897, to April, 1898

Again, had nothing come down to us in English history from the time of Edward III, other than one of the assessment rolls of that period (when there was little or no property capable of taxation but what was visible and tangible), the evidence would be complete that the mass of the English people were but little better than slaves; for the mere inspection of such rolls shows that their preparation involved such an inquisitorial scrutiny into domestic life, such a seeing, handling, enumeration, and minute valuation of everything in the household, from the utensils of the kitchen to the furniture of the bedchamber, as to make personal freedom, or a sense of self respect, on the part of the taxpayer who submitted to such a scru tiny, almost an impossibility.* And in this connection it is instructive to again refer to the famous insurrection of English yeomen and peasants under Wat the Tyler, in the reign of Richard II, the successor of Edward III, which originated directly in the attempt of a tax-gatherer or assessor to ascertain, by brutal personal examination, whether a daughter of Wat's had attained the age of puberty, and in con sequence had so become liable to enrollment for capitation assess ment.

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