How did the government make money before income taxes were implemented?

Question

Was it donation based? or simply rely on people to take a pay cut while serving their country? I know that professional politians were not supposed to exist. Seems like they must have had some source of income though.

Answer 1

They made a lot of money by selling land, among other things.

Answer 2

Mostly on tarrifs on imported goods.

Answer 3

excellent question.

the first tax is customs duty on goods carried across a kingdom for trade. then came land tax. this was collected on the produce of the land. the earliest references are found in arthasastra (in india it is still collected by the states; before 1900 this was the main source of income). then excise on liquor came. then salt monopoly. these are around for 2000 years! these taxes can be paid in kind also (paddy, etc). for certain crops which cannot be stored long, like betel leaf, sugarcane, etc., governments insisted on only cash payments; hence these crops were called cash crops.

in the middle ages in india there were numerous small taxes; there was a tax on marriage in almost every kingdom. there was a tax on hindu pilgrims at varanasi and other holy places; there was the islamic jiziya on non-muslims. there were professional taxes too. those who cannot pay their professional taxes in cash were asked to work for a fixed time in king's lands for free (called bethi - forced labour. only in 1950 our constitution banned this)

the british levied a novel tax in india called countervailing duties. and they were the first to insist on collecting taxes only in cash.

then property taxes came along with municipalities. cess was also invented along with municipal taxes. income tax  came in late nineteenth century; sales tax and inheritance tax (called estate duty) came in early twentieth century; service tax is the latest invention.

i am sure they will invent more taxes in future. and i am equally sure that all that money will be wasted.

Answer 4

tariffs, i know

toll roads and property taxes. There have always been taxes.