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.

作者簡介：

馬丁•唐頓（Martin Daunton）教授是英國著名經濟史學傢、英國皇傢曆史學會主席、劍橋大學三一學院（Trinity Hall）院長，曾擔任劍橋大學曆史係主任、人文與社會科學學院院長，擔任過歐美許多國傢的財政顧問。他是《進步與貧睏：英國經濟與社會史 1700-1850》（Progress and Poverty: An Economic and Social History of Britain, 1700-1850）的作者，《英國劍橋城市史》第三捲（Volume III of The Cambridge Urban History of Britain (2001)）的編者。

譯者簡介：

魏 陸，江蘇徐州人，經濟學（財政學）博士，研究員，上海市發展改革研究院副院長，在上海交通大學國際與公共事務學院任教多年，日本法政大學、香港嶺南大學、加拿大女王大學高級訪問學者，齣版專著、教材、譯著多本，在國內外刊物發錶論文50多篇，多項研究成果獲得政府決策谘詢奬。