3,000 – 2,500 BC: First data showing evidence of taxation, by pharaohs in Egypt.
600 – 300 BC: Most premodern societies struggle to collect taxes, but Greek city states successfully tax wealthy citizens, merchant guilds and goods traveling through their ports.
Qin Shi Huang, first leader of the Qin Dynasty.
CREDIT: JESSEW900/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
221 – 206 BC: As the power of China’s aristocracy weakens due to warfare, the Qin Dynasty develops a sophisticated bureaucracy, based on merit. Tax collection improves as a result. Europeans will emulate the Chinese bureaucracy nearly 2,000 years later.
Tax receipt on pottery, Egypt, 174 B.C.
CREDIT: METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
Middle Ages – Early Modern period: Most states collect no more than 5 percent of GDP in taxes, hampered by class tensions, limited administrative capacity and an inability to enforce collection. Feudal kings, who need the support of aristocrats to retain power, spare nobility from heavy taxation and collect, instead, from poor peasants who need protection from the crown.
French philosopher Voltaire.
CREDIT: H. ROUSSEAU, E. THOMAS/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
18th century: French philosopher Voltaire and other Western thinkers take admiring notice of Chinese administrative practices, and Europeans slowly implement advances that allow them to collect greater tax revenues. As in China, these occur after wars have weakened entrenched elites, sweeping in periods of reform......MORE
Yeah, I got your Voltaire right here:
That Time Voltaire Decided To Game the Lottery and Make a Small Fortuneand here:
"Ils ne se servent de la pensée que pour autoriser leurs injustices, et emploient les paroles que pour déguiser leurs pensées"—François-Marie Arouet--'Voltaire', Dialogue xiv. Le Chapon et la Poularde (1766).
"Men use thought only to justify their wrong doings, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts"
