At this time of year, the tax-man seems like an appropriate topic. The idea of taxation is as old as organized government. Taxation is the expedient that enables our political leaders (soldiers too) to focus their attentions on things other than putting food on the table. While not exactly the most popular person in any town, the tax collector is an essential element, who facilitates that movement of money and material. At times, the tax collectors were hated because taxes were high, at other times it was because of how they went about collecting them. Even Jesus used them as examples of the lowest of the low. I'd feel bad for the bastards, but they seem to have brought much of this hatred upon themselves.
Over the years, taxes have taken many forms. Poll taxes were generally a flat tax per individual (though some progressive taxes were employed).
Import/export taxes could be used as a means to protect local business,
as a luxury tax, or to pass governmental costs on to outsiders. Sales
taxes were simply the government taking a percentage of commerce in
general. Property taxes were payed by landowners and peasants alike. There was even a church tax in some of Medieval Europe formalizing the tithe (10%). Taxes could target specific groups who were more elusive (nomads) or members of the minority (dependent upon location, but generally including the Jews). Hey man, it's expensive to run a government.
There are three general forms in contracts between government and tax collector: share, rent, and wage. In share contracts, the tax man is offered a percentage of the total value collected from a region. Rent contracts were of two basic types based on how the payment was determined. In one type, the collectors bid against each other in an auction to determine who would get the contract. The other form involved bargaining between the government and the rent contractors to determine the actual value of the rent in question. Wage contracts agree to pay the tax collector a set amount based upon the labor involved in the collection (not an hourly wage). Any of these forms could be utilized regardless of whether the tax collector is a government functionary or a private contractor and different forms could be employed for different kinds of taxes within the same region.
The most essential issue for private collectors is understanding how much a specific area is worth (over the length of the contract). Governments naturally accept the highest bid. These collectors are then required to pay the government the agreed upon amount (lump sum or installments). Then it is up to the collector to recoup his investment as well as his pay. You can understand why they might be tenacious in their attempts to collect these taxes. Public servants were in no way immune to this effect. More valuable territories would be more highly sought after and awarded to those who could work them best (or were more politically favored). It is the gap between predicted value and actual value that leads to corruption and abuse.
Collecting taxes is a business, much like any other. However, the people who are being collected from don't generally see it that way. Tax collectors are thought of as leeches the world over. In a less connected world, it was much easier for people to hide their income (or production), or even skip town entirely when the tax man was on the prowl. Even today, most of us take every opportunity to pay the government the minimum amount possible. Assessing the true value of a business is a tricky matter at the best of times, try to include the variability of farming production and you have a very high stress job. It must be difficult to be lenient with the people when the money comes out of your own pocket.
Corruption and violence are the standard byproducts of financial dealings throughout history. Providing oversight of the tax-man can be extremely difficult, especially in large territories. Therefore, many tax officials has a significant amount of autonomy in their dealings. They were responsible for determining the specific amount owed by each individual. Is it surprising that they might not report a certain amount of each assessment? If goods were accepted in place of money, who is to say what is an appropriate value for those goods? When the people continuously try to evade paying, what is the tax-man to do? In some cases, tax-collectors might employ violence on a man's family to get him to return to town, or as warning to others who would think to do likewise. Tax collectors were renowned for their dogged attempts to collect from all within their reach. All too often, stories arose of unsavory methods of doing so.
Tax collectors are generally the villains of any tale in which they feature. Even today we have a thorough distaste for the trade (until they catch someone trying to hide an enormous fortune). However, they do play an important role in maintaining a central government. Without them, we could not pay for defense or complete any public works projects. Unfortunately, this type of work attracts those who are most avaricious and cruel, because that is what it takes to make the office lucrative (and function efficiently). These men are always viewed warily and usually live on the fringes of society. While many tax collectors earned the right to be despised, many were undoubtedly doing a difficult job in the best way they knew how.
World History - http://www.taxworld.org/History/TaxHistory.htm
Early History Applied to Modern Issues - http://www.taxhistory.org/thp/readings.nsf/ArtWeb/A5321448C7E17FF185256F0A0059A4BA?OpenDocument
Contract Types - http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1196&context=econ_wpapers
Mesopotamia - http://world-history.nmhblogs.org/2012/09/30/trade-and-taxes-of-mesopotamia/
World Taxation - http://www.worldtaxation.com/uncategorized/history-of-taxation.html
Biblical References - http://www.bible-history.com/sketches/ancient/tax-collector.html
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