Professor Martin Daunton's major study of the politics of taxation in the 'long' nineteenth century examines the complex financial relationship between the state and its citizens. In 1799, taxes stood at 20 per cent of national income; by the outbreak of the First World War, they had fallen to less than half of their previous level. The process of fiscal containment resulted in a high level of trust in the financial rectitude of the government and in the equity of the tax system, contributing to the political legitimacy of the British state in the second half of the nineteenth century. As a result, the state was able to fund the massive enterprises of war and welfare in the twentieth century. Combining research with a comprehensive survey of existing knowledge, this lucid and wide-ranging book represents a major contribution to our understanding of Victorian and Edwardian Britain.

作者简介：

马丁•唐顿（Martin Daunton）教授是英国著名经济史学家、英国皇家历史学会主席、剑桥大学三一学院（Trinity Hall）院长，曾担任剑桥大学历史系主任、人文与社会科学学院院长，担任过欧美许多国家的财政顾问。他是《进步与贫困：英国经济与社会史 1700-1850》（Progress and Poverty: An Economic and Social History of Britain, 1700-1850）的作者，《英国剑桥城市史》第三卷（Volume III of The Cambridge Urban History of Britain (2001)）的编者。

译者简介：

魏 陆，江苏徐州人，经济学（财政学）博士，研究员，上海市发展改革研究院副院长，在上海交通大学国际与公共事务学院任教多年，日本法政大学、香港岭南大学、加拿大女王大学高级访问学者，出版专著、教材、译著多本，在国内外刊物发表论文50多篇，多项研究成果获得政府决策咨询奖。