by D. H. Montgomery 1837-1928

Rome, Ruin and Revenue

Rome’s greedy tax policy in Britain and Gaul left farmers with little to show for their labours but the stripes on their backs.

250-350

Roman Britain 43-410

Introduction

Admission to the Roman Empire brought an unfamiliar prosperity and ease to the former kingdoms of Britain, but American historian David Montgomery emphasised that much of it was a sham. Behind the facade lay a culture of corruption and exploitation fed by government greed, which was not limited to the miserable slaves labouring in mines or brickworks.

by D. H. Montgomery 1837-1928

Abridged

THOSE who were called free were hardly better off,* for nearly all that they could earn was swallowed up in taxes. The standing army of Britain, which the people of the country had to support, rarely numbered less than forty thousand. The population was not only scanty, but it was poor. Every farmer had to pay a third of all that his farm could produce, in taxes. Every article that he sold had also to pay duty, and finally there was a poll-tax on the man himself.*

On the continent there was a saying that it was better for a property-owner to fall into the hands of savages than into those of the Roman assessors. When they went round, they counted not only every ox and sheep, but every plant, and registered them as well as the owners.

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For Montgomery’s preceding remarks, see ‘They Make a Desert and Call it Peace’.

The rate of taxation will not seem as extortionate to modern readers as it did to Montgomery in 1898, when UK income tax was eightpence in the pound (3.3%). According to The Taxpayers’ Alliance, ‘In real terms, the bottom 10 per cent of households paid £5,471 in direct and indirect taxes in 2017-18, or 47.6 per cent of their gross income.’

Précis

American historian David Montgomery noted that it was not just slaves who lived hand-to-mouth in Roman Britain. Farmers also struggled to prosper, as a consequence of Imperial tax policy. The assessors took as much as a third of their income in direct and sales taxes, principally in order to defray the costs of maintaining a huge military machine.

Jigsaws

Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.

The life of slaves was hard. Freemen were not much better off.

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