Four Detailed Examples of Post-Revolutionary Administrative Improvement and Resilience

The period after the 1688 Revolution is often seen as one of the administrative declines for land taxes. This chapter challenges that judgement. It provides fresh data and analysis that contradicts established historiological narratives and questions the evidence presented in traditional texts around the effectiveness of early eighteenth-century land tax. In four detailed exemplary studies, this chapter shows that some areas of land tax administration that have often been seen as signs of weakness were in fact areas of considerable strength. Land tax processes did not work because they were complicated, requiring constant adjustment and intervention, they worked because they were sufficiently simplified but well-resourced to create an annually repeatable and resilient routine. Further evidence is presented from the three case study areas of ways in which processes were simplified and improved in the early eighteenth century as experienced officials coordinated their actions across county, city and nation.