Trade in luxury goods was in the Middle Ages one of the elements building prestige and position in the international arena. Willingness to pay for importing goods, including duties and brokerage expenses, testified the economic potential of the State of the Teutonic Order in Prussia. In these days alcohol, including wine, was regarded as a luxury product. The article discusses the problem of fees incurred by the Order, associated with importing and distribution of wine in the country at the turn of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Previous research in this area did not include specific source information, which did not allow determining the scale of the phenomenon. The economic data, which is analyzed in the text, is scattered in many types of source materials – volume of imported wine in inventories and accounts, the price of the product, place of origin and destination. The article gives a closer picture of the wine trade both from the perspective of the State of the Teutonic Order as well as the European perspective of the late Middle Ages.

Almost every judicial act is associated with lower or higher fees paid by a petitioner in whose interest the act is taken. The existing legal system or the applicable normative basis of law are irrelevant. The situation was no different in the early modern Europe. This article provides an analysis of the fixed and variable fees levied in the smaller cities of Royal Prussia. The problem of charges in the inheritance proceedings, during which the estate of the deceased testator had been resolved, passing over to the heirs entitled to inheritance, is presented based on the examples from Kościerzyna, Nowe, Chojnice, Sztum. Presentation focuses on the amount of individual fees, as well as the method of their calculation and collection. It is based on the preserved normative acts and examples from the eighteenth’s century town records. This makes it possible to incorporate both formal and practical side of legal charges, which in relation to the small towns of Prussia, were never widely discussed.

Many general works and textbooks on the French Revolution indicate that one of its causes was onerous taxation of the commoners – primarily the peasantry – because the clergy and nobility were exempt. However, in reality, the clergy paid substantial sums in lieu of taxes, the nobility was only partially exempt, and taxes seem to have been lower than commonly believed. What taxpayers appear to have hated most was an inconsistent, arbitrary, byzantine system riddled with incompetence and abuse – a situation whose importance has been vastly underestimated. While these findings are clear, particularly in works of recent decades, they have not made adequate inroads to mainstream history on the French Revolution. One reason may be that many of the findings are set forth in myriad specialized works. Regardless of the explanation, the continued portrayal of the “common wisdom” indicates a need for a more mainstream, holistic dissemination of these newer views. This paper therefore attempts to present such a presentation of the realities of taxation among the classes, the reasons why taxpayers loathed the system and why the system was too inflexible to change, in order that “common wisdom” of the role of taxation in the French Revolution will move closer to its complex and fascinating reality.

Nineteenth‑century tax sources for the Polish territories annexed by Prussia, which are preserved in a relatively large number, have not so far met with significant interest from researchers, apart from a few exceptions from Wielkopolska. The aim of this work is to highlight the usefulness for specific research (socio‑economic structure of Kashubian petty nobility) of the records regarding land tax, created by the cadastral offices in three districts of West Prussia Province (Westpreußen), namely: Chłuchów (Schlochau), Chojnice (Konitz) and Kartuzy (Karthaus). Such approach is motivated by good recognition of these documents.

Cadastral offices under Prussian rule have been brought to life by the Act of 21 May 1861 on a different regulation of property tax (Gesetz vom 21. Mai 1861 betreffend die anderweite Regelung der Grundsteuer). In accordance with § 1 of the Act, land tax was separated from building tax. The provisions of the Act, in accordance with § 11, entered into force only from 1 January 1865, because by that time the newly established offices had to be properly prepared, by collecting documentation, cadastral measurements and assessment, which was to become the basis for the cadastral administration. The task of cadastral offices was to make groundwater measurements and calculate an average actual income from them (Reinertrag) to estimate the land and building tax.

Analysis of the acts of cadastral authorities, despite significant shortcomings in the archives, confirms their great research value. They contain information on the type and size of land, tax height (unfortunately preserved to a small extent), and finally the social status of their respective owners, which makes it possible to get interesting data on the socio‑ownership structure in petty nobility villages of Kaszuby in West Prussia Province.

The Church rate, church fee, church contribution. In the period of the Second Republic of Poland the state’s and the ecclesiastical authorities used these terms in order to determine financial weights voluntarily adopted by parish institutions although obligatorily paid by faithful of the Roman Catholic Church. They were established during the Partition: in the Kingdom of Poland (Congress Poland) in 1817, in the Austrian Partition in 1866 and in the Prussian Partition in 1905.
Having concluded a concordat by Poland and the Holy See (1925), a regulatory process of this complicated issue started. It took until 1930 for the parties to complete the first phase of negotiations. The arrangements brought about passing the Church rates’ law by the Polish Parliament (1932). In the second stage, there were discussions aiming at implementation of a detailed regulation of parish contributions through administrative regulation. These discussions lasted until December 1938. In spite of reaching an agreement, the state’s authorities didn’t publish the aforementioned law by the outbreak of the Second World War. As a result of that, the law has never come into force. Thus, compulsory parish contributions – having over a century of history – have been permanently liquidated.

Excise taxes, which in the budgetary practice of the Second Polish Republic were included in the category of indirect taxes, went through the complicated path of development within the two decades of interwar period. The first decade of independence brought about a territorial and material unification of these provisions, which were initially based on some solutions from the times of partitions, and later on the country’s own legal base. In mid–twenties, when the supporters of the monopoly taxation of certain means of consumption gained victory, there was a significant reduction of indirect taxes share in the income of the Treasury. During the Great Depression the situation has changed. The specifics of consumption tax guaranteed the stability of income it was generating, which resulted in real increase of tax put on excise products and the related increase of indirect taxes in the revenue. In the situation of deflation, such clearly visible fiscal policy of tax authorities resulted in severe and persistent decrease in sales of products subject to excise duty. Few reductions in tax rates occurred only in the mid– thirties. It has not changed, however, the overall trends in government policy towards indirect taxes focused on maximizing tax revenue. As a result, by the end of the interwar period, excise tax remained a stable and significant source of revenue from consumption tax.

In this article, the author presents the tax legislation of the Free City of Danzig (1920–1939), regarding housing. Particular attention has been devoted to regulations that have been put in place to combat the housing crisis in the Free City of Danzig, intensified after the First World War. Deeper analysis were subjected to acts which regulate issues of particular taxes, fees and allowances, stimulating the local construction market after a period of hyperinflation and the Great Depression. There also are some side comments on the scope of legislation, tax collection system and mechanisms of financial support provided to housing investors of the Free City of Danzig.

Over 113 thousand Jews lived in Polesie province in eastern Poland before 1939. Before the outbreak of World War II, they all had to struggle with the difficulties typical for the free market, but they were treated as equal with other Polish citizens. The process of accelerated expropriation of the local community began when Polesie fell under the Soviet Union occupation. Already in the first weeks of their rule, the new regime took the assets and funds of Jewish social and political institutions. Only temporarily the Jews were allowed to use their houses of prayer, although the government introduced special taxes for using them. By January 1940 companies and residential properties of the area greater than indicated by the regulations were nationalized without any compensation. The rules for exchanging Polish currency into rubles and a new tax system allowed invaders to rob a fundamental part of people’s savings in the so‑called Western Belarus. Professionals (lawyers, doctors) were forced to shut down their private businesses. Families, accused of acting against the Soviet Union, were deprived of all their personal property and fell victim to mass repression. As a consequence, the Jewish community and the rest of the local population became very poor in the first two years of the war. However, unlike in the areas incarnated into the German Reich or the General Government, most Jews in Polesie managed to keep their personal items and household equipment. The entry of German troops to Polesie in June 1941, started a several months long period, during which the new occupants led to the total destruction of the Jews. Latest local concentration of Jewish population has been wiped out in late January and early February 1943. (Pruzhany ghetto). Before they carried out the extermination, from the very first days of invasion German occupiers plundered and exploited the Jews in a systematic way. Military and civilian authorities imposed additional contributions, requesting delivery of cash, gold, silver, and later different categories of objects. Gradually, the entire Jewish population was concentrated in about 30 ghettos, which were located in the poorest parts of cities and villages. The cost of maintaining the ghettos rested on the shoulders of Jewish prisoners. They were forced to work for wages, which did not let them meet basic necessities of life. Such looting continued until the last moment before extermination, when the victims were deprived of clothing, shoes and valuables (e.g. wedding rings). The Germans confiscated money and valuable movable goods. Other components of Jewish property were auctioned or distributed among the local population in the conditions laid down by the Germans. From 1939 to 1943 the Jews of Polesie were first robbed by the Soviet government, then by the Germans.

The funds collected by Polish United Workers’ Party from membership fees, were an important source of income in the party’s budget. The fees’ share in the party’s revenue varies between years, but the method of collecting them was similar in many provincial organizations. Despite of general similarities there still were some differences. The article presents the characteristics of this source of income, as well as the issues related to collection of membership fees by Province Committee of Polish United Workers’ Party in Gdańsk in the years 1957–1964. Statistical data regarding the profits generated this way has been presented in the article. The attention has been drown to the factors influencing their height, as well as some tendencies and relationships connected with the collection of fees. In the article some place has been devotes to comparing, in terms of interesting issues, Gdansk party organization of the Communist Party with other provincial delegations.

After World War I, the Senate represented Iraq’s landholding class, ensuring passage of the 1933 “Law Governing the Rights and Duties of Cultivators” to regulate landlord‑tenant relations; after World War II, however, the legislature’s lower house resisted the Senate with regard to the question of taxation. How were the country’s new petroleum revenues to be disbursed? If these were directed to the national income, then they would become subject to the Constitutionally‑ordained parliamentary process which governed passage of the national budget; if, however, they were directed to the Development Board, their expenditure would remain (unaccountably) in the hands of the Cabinet members who had negotiated the new agreement with the petroleum companies. This discussion contextualizes petroleum’s role in Iraq’s tax system during the Hashemite monarchy, via Poland. There, taxation of Cepelia disadvantaged private contractors; after 1956, the folk art industries cooperative’s salary structure was revised, it reopened its own stores and took control of its own warehouses, and enjoyed a change in its tax status.

Despite the large distance, Chile and the USA were linked by economic ties, which had huge impact on diplomatic relations between the two countries. Copper is the greatest wealth as well as Chile’s main export, and the largest amount of copper was exported to the United States. For this reason, any conflict with copper in the background led to serious diplomatic tensions between the countries. One of the reasons for such frictions was tax, which had significant impact on the amount of exports and the price of copper. Therefore, both governments carefully monitored any change in taxes. The goals of this article is to present some disputes in Chilean‑American relations within the twentieth century, which originated from taxes. The main focus was put on prohibitive duty used by the United States.

Taxes accompany people from the origins of the first socially and economically developed civilizations. They also are inseparably linked to cargo trade and transport, which was mainly held by water or by land. Since the earliest times, the goods were moved by people, and together with the growing trade in goods, new forms of taxation began to appear. The proposed article will briefly describe the history of taxation in maritime transport of goods, both in Poland and worldwide, and will discuss specifics of contemporary maritime taxes in our country. It will address, inter alia, issues such as specificity of the tonnage tax, income tax on individuals and legal entities, goods and services tax and property tax. The most important legal solutions applied in taxation of goods, services and port infrastructure will be described in the following parts of the article. The article also identifies opportunities and proposals for amendments to some legislative solutions applicable to maritime transport of goods.