The excise on the necessaries of life was the prop and stay of public finance in the age of absolutism. In order to make its economic functions and its historical significance clear, the system of taxation in the Dutch Republic at that time and the opinions sharply divided on the policy there are considered in this paper. The excise, especially on the necessaries of life, accunted for two-thirds of the whole revenue, and profit and interest were almost free from the taxation. The keynote of the policy of taxation was the evasion of the tax burden for the merchants, who were the masters of the Republic. The durden was shifted not only to the petite bourgeoisie and the proletariat but also to the industrial capitalitst, who were under the rigid restrictrion of the guild control. The industrial capitalists had not sufficient power to press the government for the reform of the taxation during the war of independence. However their resistance was offered in their demand for protection against England and south Netherlands in 1638, 1647 and 1663.
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