How did taxation start?

>>3196530
>those people over there want to kill you and take everything you own
>if you give me/us just some of what you own, we will keep you safe from these people

I would assume taxation originated as a protection money of sorts. Give me that and I'll protect your family and possessions from bandits, etc.

>>3196530
>farmers started to be able to produce more than their own personal needs
>powerful men with access to weaponry, or with large groups of soldiers whom they commanded, started to provide protection or applied coercion to gain access to this surplus
>religious leaders also started to rise up, living of the agricultural surplus of these farmers.
>Often political, military and religious leadership became intertwined
>centuries later whole governments, administrations and religions were development, marking a clear cast distinction with the peasants who provided the agricultural surplus.

>Let's coordinate the village right next to build a canal for irrigation and stuff

>Why don't we just pay the "specified" dude to do the job for us?

>infrastructure like canal road and stuff needs maintenance, let's leave it to the government

Idk , maybe having a central bureaucracy for everybody's convenience is too alien for a feudalistic yuroppin mind

File: Asian Rice Farmer.jpg (132KB, 425x282px) Image search: [Google]

132KB, 425x282px

>>3196530
Anthropologically speaking: in agrarian societies.

Basically, agrarian people saw the need to stockpile food in granaries of sorts in the case of lean times. As such people would agree to render a portion of their harvest into the village granary for the security of everyone in the village.

When the villages became small states and foodstuffs a sort of proto-money, said food was eventually used to fuel labor for projects. And so taxation began.

originally, you had left-wing anarchy; everyone within a given society chipped in for everyone else
but then there were people who were absolutely fantastic (kings); the people gave their wishes credence and made them a preferred member of society
however, that preference also extended to their family and friends (princes), who also had the favor of the group, but were not great; in fact, they were selfish shitheads
those people formalized the favor of the group into institutional power for their sake, including involuntary taxes
those people then proceeded to be fucking terrible and conquered the world

the liberal solution is to craft everyone into selfish shitheads like the prince
the communist solution is to get rid of hierarchy in the first place
the actual solution is to institute a democracy and criticism of leaders to replace bad princes, but allow good kings

>>3196530
There have been all kinds of systems throughout history. For example, during the Merovingian period in the month of March the nobles would all show up at a place called the Field of March and make a gift to the king, which would be his main source of income apart from what he gained from his own lands. They had their armies with them as well in case it were decided to go to war that year. The gifts started out as "voluntary" with people trying to win the favor of the king, but gradually became mandatory. Charlemagne used this system.

Apart from church tithes, the commonality of the people would be "taxed" by the rent they had to pay to use the land which they were farming.

>>3196530
What kind of taxation? There's a great many ways a government can raise money from its citizens.

Ancient Sumeria had the Bala system whereby grain and sometimes other regional goods like reeds and leather would be transported to the city. There is no evidence how they decided how much grain was owed. We know temple granaries offered receipts for grain and can infer they would leave enough for the farmer's own needs so I speculate that the farmer's surplus was exchanged for receipts he could use to trade for tools and such.

>>3196585
this is the way it was in vedic India. You can actually see this gift giving becoming mandatory in the late vedic period, evolving into standard taxation

>>3196546
This. "Give me that or I'll kick your ass."

"If every badass who comes along does the same, I won't have anything to give you next time you're hungry."

"Give me that and I'll protect you from the others."