I've been looking for information concerning the historical tax burdens in the United States in terms of GDP or national income from as early as possible, but so far haven't found anything on Google or the like. Would anyone happen to have any online resources on this subject, by any chance?
I think Hoppe gives some sources in Democracy - the God that Failed.
-Jon
The chill that you feel is the herald of your doom! Irenicus' Diaries.
It would also be interesting to know what the tax burden was on pre revolutionary America. And what was the tax rate on tea that prompted the Boston Tea Party?
I thought the British Bottom* tea was subsidized and was cheaper than what the privateers could import which was a large part of the friction that lead to it getting tossed into river. The instigators were businessmen and importers after all...
Now the Stamp Act was a direct tax that the colonies protested against and basically ignored.
*Whatever it was actually called, the law that said that all trade through the colonies had to be in British ships to keep the other countries from engaging in direct trade with them.
Remnant: It would also be interesting to know what the tax burden was on pre revolutionary America. And what was the tax rate on tea that prompted the Boston Tea Party?
You get wildly different answers depending where you look. Common claims I've heard range from 1% to 10%, with 3% being about average. Poking around a bit, Google answers says the tax wasn't a % but a fixed amount of 3d/lb; Wikipedia says there were 90,000 lbs of tea thrown overboard and that it was worth £10,000, so a pound of tea was worth 2/2⅔ (i.e., 26⅔ pence): assuming that's after tax, 3d/lb comes to about 12⅔% rate. (Ah...it's clear that it was 3d per pound weight of tea, but perhaps someone thought it was 3d/£ and miscalculated that as 3% - would explain where that figure comes from; but the correct amount would be 1.25% at 240d/£ in predecimal currency)
μὴ παραχώρει τοῖς κακοῖς ἀλλ' εὐτολμώτερον ἀντιβάδιζε.
You may want to check out this paper, particularly table 11.2. I do not think you are going to find studies of the historical tax burdens in the US as terms of GDP going back before 1929, but I could be wrong: http://www.nber.org/chapters/c5981.pdf
Historically, and during colonial times, Americans paid little taxes since huge share of Federal Revenue came from tariffs. This paper gives a short synopsis: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005921.html
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