Pauline Sadler

POLITICAL SUPPRESSION OR REVENUE RAISING? TAXING NEWSPAPERS DURING THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY WAR

In 1797 the Prime Minister of Great Britain announced a substantial increase in the stamp duty on newspapers. This increase, and indeed the tax itself, has been variously represented as an attack o...

Securing the Repeal of a Tax on the ‘raw material of thought’

Abstract When first introduced in 1712, and throughout the eighteenth century, the stamp duty on newspapers was primarily intended as a revenue raising measure with censorship as a subsidiary, but not unintended, by-product (Sadler & Oats, 2002). In the nineteenth century the stamp duty became known, more justifiably, as a ‘tax on knowledge’ and it was increasingly criticised as being an overt form of censorship. A campaign in the 1830s to have the tax repealed resulted in a compromise, in 1836, in the form of a significant reduction in the duty from 4d to 1d per half sheet of newspaper. The stamp duty was eventually repealed in 1855, largely as a result of the activities of ‘The Newspaper Stamp Abolition Committee’, a campaign run on different lines to that of the 1830s. This paper examines this second abolition campaign, which adopted unusual tactics in pursuit of the repeal of the tax. It demonstrates the tensions between social reformers and business interests in securing the repeal of a dysfunctional tax.

Accounting for the stamp act crisis

In 1765, the British Parliament imposed stamp duties on the American colonies, setting in motion the chain of events which ultimately led to the American Revolution. This paper analyzes the practicalities of the Stamp Act to provide insights into the way in which a tax instrument that was successful in one setting failed to achieve similar success in another. The reasons for choosing stamp duties as an appropriate fiscal measure, the colonial reaction to the tax, and the way in which the tax was accounted for by the British government bureaucracy are examined. The paper demonstrates the value of using an accounting lens to provide a more nuanced interpretation of the Stamp Act crisis.

A critical evaluation of government-sponsored reviews of intellectual property in Australia

Constant changes to the Australian intellectual property (IP) system undertaken in the three decades since the 1970s have been accompanied by a proliferation of legislation and intermittent reviews. The staggering volume of such activities has generated debate as to whether such an approach should be allowed to continue in light of Australias determination to forge ahead in knowledge creation and management that the information era demands. This article investigates the propriety and consistency of the reviews conducted, the respective recommendations made, and the underlying perspectives, if any, for IP lawmaking and implementation in Australia in the past or, indeed, for the future.