The last feature to be covered in this discussion about a gentleman's responsibilities concerns tax. Within the old system of feudal Europe, the burden of taxation - or of servile dues on an aristocrat's estate - was in large part borne by the peasantry. This imbalance was one cause of the French Revolution. However, as capitalist England developed, the richer peasants and wealthier landholding classes paid the most tax.
Broadly speaking, England had shaken free of all vestiges of feudalism during the Civil War period. In the years of 1642 and 1643, the Parliamentary side had initiated a new system of land tax. As the name implies, its burden fell to the landowning aristocracy, gentry and richer yeomen. Of course, there were also other customs and dues. After all, the Georgian era was the mythical age of coastal smuggler and Cornish wrecker. Indirect taxes did indeed afflict rich and poor alike. Also, increases in land tax could also force landlords to increase the rents of their tenants. But it cannot be incontestably argued that national taxation in Georgian England was a burden on the poor.
Nor can it be easily argued that the national system of taxation revenues was completely biased in favour of landed interests. Land-tax made up the largest contribution of direct revenue. Hanoverian…show more content… Generally, those who did not vote did not pay the principal form of direct taxation. The poorest substantial group of electors within the Georgian parliamentary franchise were the so-called "Forty Shilling Freeholders". These citizens were the descendants of yeomen who owned land valued at forty shillings or more. Similar qualifications obtained in local politics. Through custom of "Scot and Lot", the right to vote in local affairs could be exercised only by those who contributed towards parochial expenses such as Poor Relief. Before 1832, thirty-seven Parliamentary Boroughs practised this
