The Land Tax Redemption Records, 1798-1963.

This article reports that England's land tax was determined annually from 1692 to 1798; at that time the amount voted for the year became a perpetual charge, subject to redemption or purchase. It is informed that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of pages of detailed information from tax records chronicle the history of the 1,100,000 property tax values assigned in 1798 as well as the course of their redemptions from 1798 to 1963. The tax allocation to counties in 1798 appears not to have kept pace with improvements to land and houses, or, more broadly, with productivity and market prices of these assets. Much more challenging than the summaries of aggregate statistics are the explanations for the apparent stability in wealth inequality. Surely the inheritance mechanism played a dominant role in perpetuating inequality from generation to generation. The rise in literacy may have counterbalanced increasing occupational and wage differentiation and helped to maintain a constant inequality of human capital. The detailed study of the land tax in specific counties and parishes before and after 1798 will provide greater understanding.