Governments all over the globe always showed an enviable ingenuity when it came to tax collection. Most often, different kinds of taxes and duties served as a way to replenish the Treasury, but at other times were dictated by the desire to wean people from bad habits (Smoking, for example).
1. Urine
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Urine
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People in ancient Rome lived more than a million, while the latter case has not yet risen to a sufficient height. Flows of sewage which regularly produced organisms of the Roman citizens, threatened to turn the city into a stinking Venice.
The Romans tried to maintain their city clean, and not skimped on the construction of toilets. And even built superior, by that time, the sewage system to remove sewage. But here's the problem, not all toilets to this system was able to connect. Not all. Under the majority of latrines were located containers, which, if left unattended, inevitably had to be filled and to overflow.
Fortunately, with the ingenuity of the ancient Romans were all right. The Emperor Vespasian was the first who realized that literally sitting on a liquid gold mine. He began to send his men to collect urine, and then deliver it to craftsmen around the city. These artisans were paid the tax on the use of this product life. That however, was easier than to get the whole thing, so they were not offended.
Want to know what they was urine? Tanners used it to soften the skin, and the laundress – to give the tog the famous white glow. The city was clean, people were dressed up, the Treasury was replenished. Everyone was happy.
When the son of Vespasian rebuked the parents (and rightly, I must say) that the whole story stinks, the Emperor, according to legend, took the coin from the first profit, held it to his nose offspring and asked if she stinks. "No," he replied. "Money does not smell" – summed Vespasian.
For his commercial flair, Vespasian was rewarded by the fact that in many European languages his name since then is firmly connected with social areas. Judge for yourself: public toilet is translated into French as "vespasiennes", in Romanian as "vespasiene", in Italian as "vespasiani"...
2. Purity
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Purity
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Our ancestors were not too competent in matters of hygiene. Well, that's true. However, if you think that the reason for this was the lack of information about the benefits of cleanliness or that they did not like to wash, you are mistaken. Actually, in England and France, for example, dirty face and matted hair had long been on the conscience of the governments of these countries who believed bath utter depravity and imposed an exorbitant tax on the sale of soap.
Over the last 2000 years bath many times in Vogue and out of her. Even among the aristocracy was not unanimity on this issue. English Queen Elizabeth I, for example, washed once in three months and Spanish Isabella of Castile, famous for its religious fanaticism, in all my life tried water treatments only twice – on the day of his birth and before the first marriage night. Other "eccentric" aristocrats didn't see anything wrong and tried to take their bath at least once a week.
Only under Charles I of regular visits to the bath once again beginning to gain popularity among the British as the king quarreled with the Parliament and was beheaded. His place was taken by ultra-Orthodox and hates the Royal authority of the Puritan Oliver Cromwell. And the British are again covered with mud.
God-fearing puritans believed the purity thing unworthy. Everything smelled good, and why (horror of horrors!) required to undress – all from evil. And that the people were easier to understand, the new government introduced a high tax on soap.
Although the idea of a soap tax belonged to Cromwell, after the restoration of the monarchy the new king, Charles II felt it necessary to change this law. In the end, if people were willing to pay for purity, why would the king not take advantage of the situation and to replenish the Treasury?
The tax on soap lasted 200 years. He was treated with such seriousness that to every manufacturer of soap was put in charge of the Royal observer, whose task was to prevent the clandestine manufacture and sale of soap on the black market. When in the 1800s, this tax was finally repealed, the Chancellor of the exchequer uttered the phrase, which later became winged: "a Clean nation is a happy nation." Since then to the present day in England does not stop hedonistic Orgy of soap.
3. Beard
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Beard
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Peter the Great went down in history as a great reformer. In 1697-1698 having made a trip to Europe, Russian Tsar planned an ambitious modernization of the country in order to overcome the backwardness of Russia from its Western neighbors. The result has been a number of significant achievements, such as the construction of St. Petersburg.
One of the main impediments to the Europeanization of Peter the great believed... beard.
In Europe by that time beards of long ago no one wore. The Russians with their long facial hair looked ridiculous, as is the man in the platform shoes, six inches inside with floating goldfish. To instill in his people a European culture, Peter issued a decree prohibiting men to wear beards. But the nature of Peter was cool. Sometimes, if you saw a bearded man on the street, could catch and shave the poor by force.
But as a man he was efficient, we decided to give the opportunity especially stubborn to keep beards if they paid a tax. Very high tax. If they were so eager to embarrass the country with their views, then at least for the benefit of the Royal Treasury.
This annual tax has left many people facing a very difficult choice: the fact that Russian customs of Orthodox man had to wear a long beard to the chest. Ivan the terrible once even threatened that "shaving the beard is committing such a sin, which not even to wash the blood of all the martyrs," which, of course, was Russian for any serious argument.
For most men the love of money and fear of Peter outweighed their religious feelings and they shaved. However, retained cut beard, punishing the heirs put them in a coffin. They, apparently, thought to justify himself before God: he said he wanted to do the right thing, but circumstances were stronger (and who then had an extra penny to spend it on facial hair?)
4. Cowardice
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Cowardice
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War is not for everyone. During the Vietnam campaign for evasion, you could end up in jail. However, many chose to be in the same cell with criminals, than to expose himself to the bullets.
It was, however, in the history of the time when it was possible to avoid the execution of military duty legally, simply by paying tax. This tax is paid by the knights, who did not want to fight.
You see, in those Dark ages the meaning of chivalry was the only to shed blood for their king. For this, many of them won awards, built castles, married the daughters of important people, acquire aristocratic habits, in General, began to lead a fairly comfortable life. And then some king would remind them that they live so exclusively because once proved themselves valiant warriors. And no matter how many servants and young children. If the war started – would you be so kind to fight.
In the end, Henry II realized that some knights still will not fight, and even if you will, to sense from them any. And realized to impose the cowardice of the knights of the huge tax. The knights were paid, the king received money, hired them for a normal fit for military service soldiers (which, moreover, were much cheaper), the size of the army grew. While this system worked excellently, although the tax exemption from the service grew by leaps and bounds.
It ended when king John (Lackland, 1167-1216; approx mixednews), the one that ruled the country during the time of Robin hood, raised the tax once again. It still could go on, but he began to demand tax years after the end of the war. Why people should pay for their own cowardice, of course, is understandable, but to pay for what the king plans to go to war this season is sorry. Barons and judgment. As a result of all this, the king had to sign the famous document called "Magna Carta" (1215), which greatly limited the Royal power.
5. Wigs & hats
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Wigs & hats
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For the rich men of the eighteenth century, the wig was extremely important subject of the toilet. The purchase and maintenance of wigs spend fortunes. Even the robbers at the time were the high road to hunt not so much for money or jewels, how much for wigs. Only incredibly rich people could afford such a luxury. So when the British government wanted to introduce the fair tax, which would affect the rich more than the poor, he did not have long to puzzle. In the late eighteenth century, it was decided to tax the wigs and powder to care for them.
The plan seemed perfect, but suddenly backfired. Many people just stopped wearing wigs and even powdering their natural hair. High tax is suddenly killed in this fashion. Here, the government achieved nothing. But he had another trump card in reserve: a tax on hats.
By that time, when we were introducing the tax on wigs, the peak of the fashion for them has passed, and they were mostly elderly people. But hats are a different matter. Even poor people tried to get hats, not to mention the rich, who had several very expensive copies. The amount of the tax depended on the value of the hats, and the range of prices was huge.
Buy hats only from vendors licensed (as alcohol is today). So the government knew who to rip off. As proof that the tax is paid, on the inner side of the hat stamp.
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