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A protest in favour of Scottish independence, 2019
Credit: ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP
“It is impossible to be sure of anything,” Benjamin Franklin declared, “except death and taxes.” No doubt. But does one want to read a book about either? Taxes often determine history. In 1765, the Stamp Act, taxing the American colonists, led to the war of independence under the slogan “no taxation without representation”.
Irish nationalism was fuelled by the unwillingness of British taxpayers to send money to “unthrifty” Ireland during the famine of the 1840s. Much of the debate on Scottish independence is coloured by Scottish claims that the British tax system prevents them from exploiting their full potential, while the English retort that they are fed up with subsidising their tiresome northern neighbour. As Alexis de Tocquveille noted in the 19th century, there is hardly any political question that does not “derive from taxes or end up in taxes”.