Frances Maguire: ‘Printed Receipts and Personal Solvency: Collecting the Paperwork of Hearth Tax’
Duration: 16 mins 8 secs
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| Description: | Discussion of the material culture of Hearth Tax, showing the intrusion of the state into households but also the potential for negotiation. |
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| Created: | 2016-04-09 17:32 |
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| Collection: | Treasuries of Knowledge |
| Publisher: | University of Cambridge |
| Copyright: | Frances Maguire |
| Language: | eng (English) |
| Distribution: |
World
(downloadable)
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| Keywords: | archive; Tax; early modern; printing; |
| Explicit content: | No |
| Abstract: | While treasuries may be viewed as repositories, they can also be parts of institutions where material goes in and out. I am interested in exploring these processes by looking at the administration of Hearth Tax as a case study. This direct tax, which was introduced in 1662 and its corresponding paperwork is seen by Paul Slack and others as resonant of an ‘information age’ emerging at the end of the seventeenth century. The Hearth Tax office provided a repository of information to be mined by political arithmeticians, such as John Graunt and Gregory King. Assessment lists of taxpayers were used to make wider speculations on the wealth of the country and how to harness it effectively. Moreover, this quantitative examination of state material has persisted. Modern scholarship continues to survey Hearth Tax records for the demographic information they can yield about the seventeenth century.
However, my paper will argue that looking at the material output of the Hearth Tax office offers an alternative approach to state records and collecting practices more broadly. This requires a consideration of the paperwork that did not get returned to central office. Following the paperchains of hearth tax administration shows material going the other way: to the taxpayer. The distribution of pre-printed tax receipts, filled in by collectors and given to taxpayers, demonstrates record production taking place on doorsteps. Printed slips provided proof of payment and were, accordingly, kept in bundles and pasted into private account books. State material entered the household and, moreover, was inculcated into individual practices of collecting and record making. Receipts were instrumental in constructing the creditworthiness of individuals. My paper will demonstrate the different types of archival spaces that state material was sucked into, nuancing our understanding of the repository and its associated collecting practices. |
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