ABSTRACT
The introduction of the poll tax marks the most significant reform of the local tax base that has taken place since Britain became an industrial nation and, indeed, reintroduces a tax which was more characteristic of precapitalist Britain. The last time a poll tax was imposed in Britain was in 1698, but its imposition had been more frequent in earlier centuries, its one enduring quality being its unpopularity. In the late fourteenth century it had provided the spark for the Peasant's Revolt. Elsewhere, poll taxes have tended to belong to the feudal period and in contrast to their contemporary re-introduction were more often than not used as a measure for bolstering the central exchequer rather than providing for local revenue needs. In any case, with the onset of industrial society, on the one hand, and the gradual evolution of a system of local government charged with the provision of an expanding range of services, on the other, local taxation systems in Britain, as elsewhere, turned towards different kinds of bases, property in particular.
