Taxation in Colonial America

Alvin Rabushka is the David and Joan Traitel Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. His books include "The Flat Tax".

• List of Illustrations xi Preface and Acknowledgments xvii Introduction 1 Part One: Founding the American Colonies 19 Chapter 1: The First Wave 23 Chapter 2: The Middle Wave 42 Chapter 3: The Th ird Wave 56 Appendix: List of Tax Incentives in Founding and Settlement of the American Colonies 64 Part Two: Turmoil in England--Growth in the Colonies, 1607-1688 65 Chapter 4: Constitutional Government and Politics in En gland, 1607-1688 71 Chapter 5: Imperial Governance: Constitutional and Commercial Policy, 1607-1688 92 Chapter 6: The Colonial Constitution, 1607-1688 118 Chapter 7: Taxation of the New En gland Colonies, 1620-1688 144 Chapter 8: Taxation of the Middle Colonies, 1624-1688 199 Chapter 9: Taxation of the Southern Plantation Colonies, 1607-1688 228 Appendix: Taxation in the American Colonies, 1688 267 Part Three: War in Europe--Opportunity in the Colonies, 1688-1714 271 Chapter 10 Constitutional Government and Politics in En gland, 1688-1714 275 Chapter 11: Imperial Governance: Constitutional and Commercial Policy, 1688-1714 301 Chapter 12: The Colonial Constitution, 1688-1714 325 Chapter 13: Taxation of the New En gland Colonies, 1688-1714 355 Chapter 14: Taxation of the Middle Colonies, 1688-1714 399 Chapter 15: Taxation of the Southern Plantation Colonies, 1688-1714 416 Appendix: Tax Burdens in the American Colonies, 1714 437 Part Four: Salutary Neglect in the Colonies, 1714-1739 441 Chapter 16: Imperial Governance and the Colonial Constitution, 1714-1739 445 Chapter 17: Taxation of the New En gland Colonies, 1714-1739 454 Chapter 18: Taxation of the Middle Colonies, 1714-1739 490 Chapter 19: Taxation of the Southern Plantation Colonies, 1714-1739 519 Appendix: Taxes in the American Colonies, 1739 556 Part Five: War, Debt, Money, and Taxes: Prelude to Imperial Intervention, 1739-1763 559 Chapter 20: Imperial Governance and the Colonial Constitution, 1739-1763 563 Chapter 21: Taxation of the New En gland Colonies, 1739-1763 575 Chapter 22: Taxation of the Middle Colonies, 1739-1763 624 Chapter 23: Taxation of the Southern Plantation Colonies, 1739-1763 657 Part Six: An American Tax, 1763-1775 713 Chapter 24: British Politics, Imperial Governance, and Colonial Government and Politics, 1763-1775 717 Chapter 25: British Taxation of the American Colonies, 1763-1775 749 Chapter 26: Taxation of the New En gland Colonies, 1763-1775 766 Chapter 27: Taxation of the Middle Colonies, 1763-1775 797 Chapter 28: Taxation of the Southern Plantation Colonies, 1763-1775 826 Conclusion 865 Appendix 871 Bibliography 891 Index 915

Special Recognition in the 2009 Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Awards "Running to nearly a thousand pages, this massive compendium of Colonial American tax data draws together disparate primary and secondary sources in an impressive feat of scholarship. Rabushka provides context for the wealth of public finance detail through a constitutional history ranging from the Magna Carta, through the early Colonial charters and Parliament's subordination of the monarchy, the Parliament's final confrontations with the increasingly assertive Colonies... Encyclopedia, with much narratives committed to tax listings, this volume is a valuable resource for research."--R. S. Hewett, Choice "[T]hanks to Rabushka's work, more can now be done on the history of trans-Atlantic connections. The originality of this book is in its mastery of the printed secondary and primary works, thus offering the most definitive resource to date on the subject of taxation in colonial America."--William J. Ashworth, Enterprise & Society "Alvin Rabushka has written an extraordinary history of early American taxation. Weighing in at 3 pounds, 5 ounces, and running to almost 1,000 pages, it's a big book. But it needs to be, for this is historical work on a grand scale. Rabushka has managed to compress into a single volume a detailed history of the colonial tax systems between the settlement of Jamestown and the beginning of the Revolutionary War. It's an extraordinary accomplishment."--Joseph J. Thorndike, Tax Notes "Makes an enormously significant contribution to scholarship on the British North American colonies. Every university with an active graduate program, plus all the major independent research centers, should add this jewel to their library holdings. Alvin Rabushka has produced an astonishing and overwhelming labor of love, and colonial historians will remain forever in the author's debt for his prodigious research on the various tax systems in the thirteen colonies from 1607 through 1775... This handsomely produced volume could become the standard reference on colonial taxation for the next thousand years. Yes, that long."--Edward J. Perkins, Journal of American History "The volume is one that scholars will find enduringly useful."--American Historical Review "Written for the average layperson without a detailed knowledge of history or taxation, the book is certain to become a standard in the field."--Stephanie Towery, Law Library Journal "Every scholar of colonial America should have this book on their shelf."--Farley Grubb, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History "Rabushka's work is encyclopedic in scope, thorough and fastidious in its mobilization of both tax-history scholarship and primary sources on colonial finance, and probing in its analysis of budgets and taxes. His mastery and crystal-clear explanations of previously baffling intricacies of colonial taxation means that his book is now the best starting point for anyone interested in the colonial foundations of American taxation."--W. Elliot Brownlee, Harvard Business History Review "This massive compendium of colonial American tax data draws together disparate primary and secondary sources in an impressive feat of scholarship. It provides an encyclopedic account of taxation in all thirteen colonies from the onset of European colonization to the American Revolution."--Roger Hewett, EH.net