The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume I :The Ancient Regime

by Hippolyte Taine

The taxation authorities, however, in thus bearing down on taxable property has not released the taxable person without property. In the absence of land it seizes on men. In default of an income it taxes a man's wages. With the exception of the vingtièmes, the preceding taxes not only bore on those who possessed something but, again, on those who possessed nothing.

Genres: History, French Revolution, Ancient History

318 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1875

About the author

Hippolyte Adolphe Taine was a French philosopher, critic and historian. He was the chief theoretical influence of French naturalism, a major proponent of sociological positivism and one of the first practitioners of historicist criticism. Literary historicism as a critical movement has been said to originate with him.[1] Taine is particularly remembered for his three-pronged approach to the contextual study of a work of art, based on the aspects of what he called "race, milieu, and moment".

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippoly...

Hippolyte Adolphe Taine était un historien, philosophe et critique littéraire français.