Taxation

Taxation might be viewed as a redistributive economic procedure, whereby governmental institutions take resources from their constituencies to pay, ideally, for public benefits. Such systems pretty much date back to the dawn of time—the oldest extant written document in the Western world is a tax record from Egypt dating to before 3100 b. c.e. As such, taxes are premonetary. In the days before coinage, taxes were paid "in kind," meaning predetermined amounts of agricultural goods were handed over to the ruling authority, often with an additional component of required labor.

A simple system of taxation was present in ancient Sparta. At the bottom of the social ladder were the helots, who provided agricultural slave labor for their Spartan overlords. The Spartan citizens turned over a percentage of their own produce to their sysitia, or eating clubs (see chapter 6). Spartan citizenship actually depended on a citizen's ability to pay his full share of the sysitia tax. Beyond this obligatory donation system, additional "taxes" existed in the form of gifts to the kings. Very little bureaucracy or record keeping was required.

More complex systems of taxation appeared in the Archaic Age during the reigns of the tyrants, such as Peisistratos of Athens and Cypselus of Corinth (see chapter 7). At this time, residents were subject to direct taxation on the basis of personal wealth, as well as an annual income tax, a sales tax, and customs duties (although this last was generally levied on foreign traders coming into the cities) (Christesen 2000, 1603).

The situation in Athens became even more complex during the fifth century b. c.e., when Athens received tribute from the Delian League and went from a democracy to a social democracy (see chapter 7) under Pericles. At this time, the city received revenues from five sources: tribute; rents on state properties; direct taxes of resident aliens (metics); indirect taxes on the entire population, including a 10 percent tax on agriculture; and liturgies. A liturgy is the assumption of a work or duty, whereby a wealthy citizen must fund, say, the production of a play or the construction/restoration of a certain number of warships. Such liturgies might be seen as the combination of a direct tax and corve labor, as it obliged the individual to pay for and oversee goods and services for the state. Such demands could be quite outstanding, as Xenophon expresses in his Oikonomikos (2, 6): "I observe that the city has assigned you to provide many things—horse-rearing and funding choruses and gymnastic competitions and presidencies. And should war arise, I know that they would assign to you ship maintenance and taxes of such a sort that you would not easily bear it. And if ever you should appear to do any of these tasks under budget, I know that the Athenians would take vengeance on you no less than if you took something from them by theft."

Eisphora, or emergency taxes, were collected in addition to these other sources of revenue during times of economic crisis, such as during a protracted war. Of all these taxes in Athens, about 35 percent went to maintaining the military, 20 percent to building projects, 20 percent to state services such as attendance of the assembly or jury, 10 percent for religious ceremonies and festivals, and about 6 percent for social welfare (Christesen 2000,617).