Taxation in Britain since 1600

"The total volume of taxation is certainly related largely to what the taxpayer thinks is worth paying for, and how much he or she is prepared to pay. Both of these items have changed enormously over three and a half centuries, but there is a good deal more to it than that. The growth of taxation has not been regular throughout the period. Patterns in taxation change may be discerned. In particular, wars have always resulted in taxation increases, and when the war is finished taxation never settles down to a level as low as it had been before the war began. This book seeks to understand and explain the reasons for these changing patterns, and should be of interest to the general reader, as well as the historian or economist."--BOOK JACKET.