Collect urine taxes, beard taxes and hundred odd things

Through historical notes and research works, today we have a vivid, interesting, fascinating tax picture - something that effectively reflects the state of a society.

Taxes are immutable in every human society since the first civilization appeared in Mesopotamia. However, taxes also want to shape the state for centuries. Taxes apply to almost anything and can be paid for almost anything. Recently, National Geographic listed some odd tax forms.

The 'urine tax' of the Romans

Ancient Romans highly promoted urine because of the ammonia content contained in it. For them, urine is a multi-purpose cleanser that can be used for many purposes such as washing clothes or cleaning teeth. And like many other valuable products, urine is also listed as taxable even though not many wealthy Romans despise this filth.

Public toilets in the Roman arena.(Photo: Jose Louiz Bernardes Ribeiro).

The following anecdote is told by historian Suetonius around 120 through his famous book Twelve Roman emperors. The Vespasian Emperor (reigning from 69 - 79) earned a large sum of money by taxing the sale of urine collected from public toilets. When Titus - his son - blamed his father for imposing a tax on his urine, he took a coin from the first batch of urine tax, put it in his son's nose and asked: 'Do you smell a child? . As soon as Titus said 'No ', the emperor replied: 'Obtained from urine'.

Shabby hair will be beaten 'beard'

This strange-sounding rule was issued by King Henry VIII of England in 1535. The fee will increase in relation to the social status of beards. So a noble with a beard will surely be taxed more than a common man. King Henry VIII, of course, was exempt from paying a fine even though he wore a long beard.

Russia's Tsar Peter the Great, who carried out the "Westernized" reform , helped Russia enter the ranks of European aggression, which also enacted tax on bearded people in 1698. Peter tends to be pro- The West argues that the popularity of Russian style beard represents the country's stagnant, conservative nature. Gentlemen with beards must pay a significant cost and are required to bring a special sharpness to prove that they have bought the right to maintain the beard.

The heavy 'blood tax' in the Ottoman Empire

In the name of the economic and social role of Janassary in the Ottoman city of the 17th century: In the case of Istanbul (2011), historian Gulay Yilmaz provided us with information about a special tax of Turkish. The Ottoman rulers forced non-Muslim subjects in the empire's territory to pay a tax on what they considered most dear - the children. It is the famous 'blood tax' that has caused terror among Balkan families under Muslim rule.

From the beginning of the 15th century to the end of the 17th century, Ottoman local officials periodically conducted the separation of Christian youth from their families, bringing them to live under Ottoman rule, forcing them to went to Islam and handed it over to the Sultan's court. Young people must undergo military training lasting 5-8 years while working for the state in workshops, farms, boats, construction sites (Devshirme system).

Gulay Yilmaz asserted: 'Of course, they also became the basis for the elite Janassary army of the empire. And the elite of the empire's bureaucratic bureaucracy is largely derived from those young people who are trained and strengthened to cultivate knowledge by a special education in palaces before become a state administrative officer '.

Christian teenagers (red shirts) serve in the Ottoman Empire.

At least young people are exempt from taxes for their service to the empire. Those who were chosen to be Devshirme did not have to pay the so-called cizye amount - the tax on each adult Christian man.

Please submit beer, brooms and stones!

Taxes existed for a long time. They are before the first coins.

In ancient Mesopotamia, there were some strange ways to pay taxes. For example, the burial burial tax in the grave is paid with '7 barrels of beer, 420 loaves of bread, 2 bushels of wheat, a woolen coat, a goat and a bed probably for the dead', according to history. of the ancient Middle East Tonia Sharlach in the 2004 book of Local Taxes and States of the Ur dynasty.

About 2000 - 1800 years BC, there was a record of a guy who paid 18,880 brooms and six logs. Sharlach added, "It must be some sort of farmer compromise - government, the way farmers provide essential goods to the government."

Creating some form of in-kind payment also helps many tax frauds. According to Sharlach: ' In another case, a man claimed he did not own any property except the rice mill. And he forced the tax collector to carry that mortar as a form of tax. '

'Tax with women's breasts': Contempt for class in India

Between the countless strangest taxes there is a tax called mulakkaram - 'tax on women's breasts' . It was issued by rulers in Kerala, southern India in the early 19th century. Women have to pay taxes if they want to cover the sensitive part of the body in public. And the tax on that face is the financial burden on low-class women (Avarna) where it is deployed.

That ridiculous tax caused a legendary protest. Although the truth of truth is often difficult to verify, there is a story spread in the town of Cherthala where a woman named Nangeli lives. Unable to pay taxes as well as being forced to pay taxes, Nangeli cut off her chest to pay the tax collector in amazement. She had to pay for her own life, but the terrible law was abolished from the beginning of this action.

The whole story is not recorded in Kerala's official chronicle until the book of Subhrashis Adhikari researcher named Journey of the Survivors: The 70,000 Year History of the Indian Subcontinent published in 2016 recall it.

Smart idea - a way to free tax for life

In the Maurya Empire of India (about 321-185TCN), people used to hold a contest on annual ideas, the winner will receive tax-free amnesty . The government solicited the help of the people in terms of ideas to solve their own difficult problems. If the solution you offer is accepted and implemented, you will not have to pay taxes for the rest of your life.

Writers, travelers, ambassadors of the Seleucid dynasty (Greek institution - post-Alexander Alexander the Great), Megasthenes (about 350-290 BC), recorded this amazing story in the Indica book (Indo Degree).

Like most tax reform efforts, this system is not perfect. According to Sharlach historian: The problem is, no one has enough motivation to solve more than one problem.

Today, the history of taxation as well as its forms of existence continues to be a topic of interest by many historians around the world due to the usefulness of information it brings to research.