Our Country's Cause; Or, A New Plan of Taxation, Submitted to the...
The "Umbrella Tax" Broadside: An Unrecorded 1805 Proposal to Fund the Napoleonic Wars [Broadside]. [Taxation]. Our Country's Cause; Or, A New Plan of Taxation, Submitted to the Right Hon. W. Pitt in December 1804, For the General Advantage of the Nation, The Poor and Middling Classes in Particular; By Taking Off Many of Our Oppressive Taxes, And Substituting the Following:.... [London]: Published, by W. Finch, June 1805. 17" x 10-3/4" (43.2 x 27.5 cm) broadside on laid paper, text in double columns separated by rule. Moderate toning, horizontal fold lines, minimal light edgewear, small "No 1" in ink in contemporary hand to upper left corner. Very good. $1,500. * At the height of the Napoleonic Wars, William Pitt the Younger faced a fiscal crisis. His solution-income and property taxes-was met with public outrage. This extraordinary and seemingly unrecorded broadside presents a populist alternative. Published by W. Finch in 1805, the "New Plan" proposes shifting the tax burden away from the "Poor and Middling Classes" and onto the luxuries and "follies" of the wealthy. The author suggests a fascinating array of duties. Taxes on "public routs and feasts" and tea gardens and theatres targeted the high-society parties and leisure exhibitions of the Regency era. The author even proposes an "umbrella & parasol" license, a bizarrely specific levy on what was then becoming a more common fashion accessory. Finch calculates these "sin and luxury" taxes could generate a staggering ?28 million, far outpacing the revenue of Pitt's unpopular 5% income tax. It is a vivid snapshot of early 19th-century economic dissent and the creative (if desperate) measures proposed to fund the struggle against France. This rare item appears to be unrecorded. No copies on OCLC or Library Hub. Not at Harvard or the British Library; not in Goldsmiths'-Kress. This appears to be the sole extant copy of a proposal that provides a unique window into British domestic opposition during the Napoleonic era.
Price: $1,500.00
Book number 86033