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Taxation and the Working Class, 1915–24*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

R. C. Whiting
R. C. Whiting
Affiliation:
University of Leeds
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Extract

The working class's experience of the tax system is an important aspect of its relationship with the state. This article examines the nature of this connexion during the First World War and its aftermath when fiscal policy was subject to intense political pressure. Two themes are paramount, those of resistance and appropriation. From the point of view of governments the less tax collection encouraged class-based opposition the better. Because the level of tax payments depended on varied circumstances within social groups – caused by family size or patterns of consumption, for example – the lines of differentiation were more finely drawn than the contours of social class. Many tax payments affected the individual as a citizen within the political system rather than as a producer within the economy. The articulation of resentment about tax burdens with conflicts in the economy was not therefore automatic. However, when governments were closely involved in the running of the economy, as in the First World War, it was helpful to use the tax system as an instrument of social justice, so that efforts to generate a common purpose might not be impaired by resentment of the disproportionate gains of others. In these circumstances taxpayers might well be encouraged to see the tax system as a way of appropriating or limiting the wealth of other classes, in a way which did bring it into closer relationship with the economy.

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Articles
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The Historical Journal , Volume 33 , Issue 4 , December 1990, pp. 895 - 916
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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References

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2 Royal commission on income tax, minutes of evidence (Parl. Papers, 1919, XXIII, pt I), Q, 6701.

3 Smith was at this time vice-president of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain (M.F.G.B.). Special conference proceedings of M.F.G.B., 22 Oct. 1919, p. 23.

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25 For the position outside South Wales see the ministry of labour reports to cabinet, 26 Nov. 1919 (CP 258), 21 Jan. 1920 (CP 486), in P.R.O., CAB 24/94 and 96, respectively. For South Wales see Lewis Merthyr Lodge minutes, 14 Nov. 1919 and S.W.M.F. special conference proceedings, 8 Nov. 1919, held in the South Wales Coalfield Archive, University College, Swansea.

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34 S.W.M.F. conference, 26 Aug. 1919.

35 The campaign began in 1916. See Lewis Merthyr joint committee minutes, 6 Sept., 4 Oct., 16 Nov., 1916, 20 Nov. 1917.

36 Brace and Richards withdrew the S.W.M.F. resolution to refuse to pay tax, in place of one of the M.F.G.B. executive council to await the report of the royal commission on income tax. M.F.G.B. special conference, 22 Oct. 1919, pp. 4–6, 21–8.

37 Stenson to R. V. N. Hopkins, 16 June 1919, in P.R.O., IR 75/185. Cook was heavily defeated for the office of vice-president in June 1919, when younger candidates of the left did badly. See Woodhouse, M. G., ‘Rank and file movements among South Wales Miners 1910–1926’ (unpublished D.Phil, dissertation, University of Oxford, 1969), p. 178Google Scholar.

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46 The Lancashire delegate to the M.F.G.B. special conference of 22 Oct. 1919 referred to the fact that engineering workers appearing before the courts for non-payment received no help from the A.S.E. For examples of assistance to miners in tax cases see Lady Windsor Lodge minutes, 9, 11, 24 July 1918. For evidence of the grievances of engineers about income tax see , A.S.E., Monthly Journal and Report, 09 1917, 54Google Scholar; Jan. 1918, 58–59; May 1919, 31, 73.

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Bonar Law: ‘I admit the strength of what you say just now; I had not seen the point.’

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53 R.C. on income tax, minutes of evidence (P.P. 1919, XXIII, pt I), Q. 9124. (William Clark): ‘You are aware of the fact that more than 10s in the £ is taken from large incomes now by the state ln income tax alone?

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