Customs and Excise: Trade, Production, and Consumption in England, 1640-1845

by William J. Ashworth

Overview

Ashworth traces the growth of customs and excise, and their integral role in shaping the framework of industrial England. He examines their influence on elements such as state power, technical advance, and the evolution of a consumer society. If there was a unique pathway of industrialization, it was less a distinct entrepreneurial and techno-centric culture, than one predominantly defined within an institutional framework spearheaded by the excise and a wall of tariffs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199259212
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/09/2003
Pages:	412
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

University of Liverpool

Table of Contents

AbbreviationsAcknowledgementsIntroductionPart I: Consuming the People1. The Emergence of Public Credit: War, Revenue, and High Politics2. The "Consumptibility" of Goods: Customs, Excise, and Trade3. The Equitable Tax? 4. Liberty, Property, and the ExcisePart II: The "Devil's Remedy"5. Delusion? Public Credit, Trust, and the Excise6. The Introduction of the Excise7. "His leering eyes gives such a look": The World of ExcisePart III: An Impolite and Commercial People - the Common Economy8. Life on the Waterfront9. Pilfering, Custom Fees, and Renumeration10. Smuggling11. Free Trade, Transport, and ConcealmentPart IV: Excise, Fraud, and Production12. Drink and Food13. Candles, Soňap, Salt, Starch, Leather, Paper, Textiles, and GlassPart V: Shaping and Regulating the Market14. Measurement, Instrumentation, and Alcohol Standards15. Revenue, Metrology, and Casks16. The Incarceration, Adulteration, and Policing of Taxed GoodsPart VI: Dismantling the Fiscal-Military State17. The Limits of Taxation and the Politics of Representation18. Revenue, "Old Corruption", and Manufacturing Interests19. "Simplicity, Uniformity, and Perspicuity"20. "The Calcio Millennium"Index

Editorial Reviews

"Ashworth provides us with a rewarding analysis of the role of customs and excise in the making of modern British economy. Because of his focus, he offers the grit that many of the preceding works on the fiscal-military lack. Ashworth has written a model book well worth studying by anyone interested in any aspect of the long eighteenth century."—David Hancock, Journal of Modern History

"This book is impressive both in its chronological span and its attention to detail. Ashworth has undoubtedly made an important contribution to our understanding of the development of Britain's state institutions and economy."—American Historical Review

"An ambitious book with a wide scope both thematically and chronologically. It provides a comprehensive description of the origins, development and demise of a mode of taxation, namely the fiscal regime of the English/British State from the formation of the Excise Excise in the 1640's to the introduction of income tax some two hundred years later."—EH-NET

From the Publisher