IV. Later Mediceval and Modern History of the Property Tax
Before
long a change set in. In England the fifteenths and
tenths were changed in 1334
from
percentage to apportioned taxes.
Every locality had now to raise a definite lump sum, which,
it was intended, should remain the same from year to year,
and which was to be apportioned in precisely the same ratio among the
various counties, towns and parishes. One fifteenth
and tenth therefore meant a fixed sum, and when more
was needed, two or three fifteenths and tenths were imposed.
The old methods of assessment, however, soon fell into disuse.
Each town and county made its own arrangement and treated
personal property with such leniency that the total product
of the tenth and the fifteenth continually decreased. This
resulted in attempts on the part of the crowTi to supplement
the old tax by a new general property tax, called the subsidy.
The early efforts met with failure, but finally, in 1514,
the
first
general subsidy was granted, as a tax of sixpence in every pound
of property. The pound rate was afterwards fixed at four
shillings on lands, and two shillings eight pence on goods. But
the subsidy went through precisely the same development as
the fifteenth and the tenth. At first really a percentage tax, it
was soon practically converted into an apportioned tax of a stated
lump sum, No re-assessment of the districts took place;
each locality was supposed to pay the same sum year after
year. All increase in wealth was thus entirely omitted from
1 Engela, De Geschiedenis der Belastingen in Nededand, pp. 60-65.
