Hi all! New user here, and I am glad I can join you all. For my first post I’d like to propose a question regarding the history of property taxation:
Am I wrong in thinking that the property taxation system in America is directly related to “socage” land tenure in feudal Europe, specifically, England? I can’t seem to shake this belief.
I’ve searched the site using the term “socage”, and found only one article in the Journal of Libertarian Studies from 1983 that quotes “The Governmental Habit” by Jonathan Hughes. I promptly ordered the book off Amazon after reading the premise.
The reason I am interested is because I’m trying to find the root of the property tax system. If indeed the system arose out of feudal Europe then it certainly predates the Physiocrats of the enlightenment era, the Georgists of pre-industrial America, but arrived some time after the ancient agricultural tax system. This puts the origin in the “dark ages” of individual liberty, as far as I am concerned.
This might empower our anti-tax rhetoric with extra vigor, and I believe that I can find good help with this idea among minarchists and anarchists; Neither of which would likely describe themselves as contented with being villeins or serfs of the State.
Thank you all for your interest, cheers. [D]