The Tax Threshold: Policy, Principles, and Poverty

In the absence of an independent poverty standard, postwar Britishgovernments have tended to use current, politically determinedsocial security scales (from Unemployment Assistance in the1930s to Income Support today) as their definition of minimallyadequate income levels, commonly known as an ‘officialpoverty line’. A basic principle of taxation since thedays of Adam Smith, however, has been that incomes below theminimum income required for socially defined necessities shouldbe free of tax. The personal tax allowance which determinesthe income tax-paying threshold thus also provides a practicaldefinition of such an official poverty line. Royal Commissionsand official committees since the nineteenth century have endorsedSmith's principle, but it only acquired major political significanceafter the Second World War when income tax began to affect lowearners, particularly after the 1960s when poverty was ‘rediscovered’in the UK. In spite of this potential coincidence of purpose,a review of evidence and interviews with officials shows thatthere has been no co-ordination of policy between the Treasuryand Inland Revenue responsible for determining the level ofthe tax allowances, and the Social Security ministries responsiblefor the minimum benefit scales. The tax threshold has consequentlycontinued to be determined by considerations of political economyand administration and not by the alleviation of poverty. ^* This paper is part of a larger project on concepts of povertyand need in British income maintenance systems, chiefly the‘Assistance’ schemes which ran from 1934 to 1966.I am grateful to the many people who have helped with the project,regrettably too numerous to name here. I am particularly indebtedto Sir Norman Price and Sir Kenneth Stowe, James Meade, DellaNevitt, and). Leonard Nicholson for information on the tax issues,and want to record my thanks to them and to Fran Bennett, JohnHills, Chris Pond, and Adrian Sinfield, and especially RodneyLowe, as well as participants in seminars at the Universitiesof Edinburgh and Essex, and in Budapest, for their advice onthis paper.     

MANIFESTATIONS OF IMPERIAL POLICY: THE NEW SOUTH WALES SYSTEM and LAND PRICES IN UPPER CANADA IN 1825

This paper traces the introduction into Upper Canada of elements of the New South Wales System. The most significant development was the institution in 1825 of a sales policy, at the instigation of the imperial government. Using data drawn from pro / co 47, stepwise multiple regression analysis is used to describe the 'upset' price of land in relation to six independent variables. Population density, the number of mills, and distance to road are identified as the most significant variables in the minds of those who set land prices.
Dans cet article, on fait le suivi de certains éléments du système 'New South Wales' à partir de leur introduction dans le Haut-Canada. Leplus important fait à signaler est l'institution en 1825 d'une politique des ventes par le gouvernement impérial. À l'aide de données tirées du pro/co 47, une analyse de régression multiple pas-à-pas ('step-wise') est utilisée afin de caractériser la mise à prix des terres par rapport à six variables indépendantes. l'analyse démontre que la densité de population, le nombre de moulins et la proximité de la route étaient les variables les plus significatives dans l'esprit des gens qui établissaient les prix des terres.     

Revolutionary and evolutionary change in human geography: a personal assessment

Many perspectives new to Anglo-Saxon human geography have been introduced into the discipline over the last twenty years. These are reviewed in terms of the impacts upon mainstream human geography of the quantitative/spatial organisation /theoretical revolutions, and the reactions against these in turn by advocates of the behavioural, liberal/relevance, Marxist and post-positivist perspectives. The review ends with a brief consideration of some contemporary approaches within human geography, particularly those seeking an understanding of the processes underpinning the relationships between agency and structure. By way of conclusion a personal assessment is given of the current standing of the discipline and the nature of the changes required of it in the 1980s.     

INTERVIEW WITH

Born in 1937, reared and educated mainly in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Demos is a leading social historian of early America. He has published a widely known account of early Plymouth, an anthology of primary sources on colonial culture, a co-edited collection of essays on family history, and numerous scholarly articles on social history and psychohistory, some of which he included in a volume on family history and public policy. He received the Frederic Bancroft Prize for his book on witchcraft. Since 1986, Demos has been Samuel Knight Professor of American History at Yale University, where he has recently completed a book on colonists and Indians. He and his wife, Virginia, were married in 1963, have two daughters, and live in Watertown, Massachusetts. This interview was conducted in Demos' office at Yale by Roger Adelson in October 1992.