Paper stamped with a certain mark by Government, and which in many
countries must be used for all judicial acts, public deeds, and private
contracts, in order to give them validity, is one of those numerous
modes of taxation invented after the other means of raising money for
the service of states, or rather of their rulers, became exhausted. It
is not of great antiquity; for before the invention of our paper it
would not have been a very productive source of finance. When parchment
and other substances employed for writing on were dear, when greater
simplicity of manners produced more honesty and more confidence among
mankind, and when tallies supplied the place of notes, bonds, and
receipts, writings of that kind were very little in use.
De Basville, however, in his Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de
Languedoc, affirms that stamped paper was introduced so early as
the year 537, by the emperor Justinian. This book, written by the
author, intendant of that province in 1697, for the use of the duke
of Burgundy, was printed, in octavo, at Marseilles in 1734, and
not at Amsterdam, as announced in the title; but it was carefully
suppressed by the Government, and on that account is very scarce even
in France[678]. I have never seen it; but I know the author’s ideas
respecting stamped paper, from an extract in Variétés Historiques,
Physiques, et Littéraires, printed at Paris in the year 1752[679].
The author of this work supports the opinion of his countryman: but
it is undoubtedly false; for the law quoted as a proof requires only
that documents should be written on such paper as had marked at the
top (which was called the protocoll) the name of the intendant of the
finances, and the time when the paper was made; and this regulation
was established merely with a view to prevent the forging and altering
of acts or deeds[680]. A kind of stamped paper therefore was brought
into use, though different from what we have at present, the principal
intention of which is not to render writings more secure, but by
imposing a certain duty on the stamps, proportioned to the importance
of the purpose it is employed for, to make a considerable addition to
the public revenue[681]. The stamps serve as a receipt to show that the
tax has been paid; and, though many law papers must be stamped, that
burthen has tended as little to prevent law-suits as the stamping of
cards has to lessen gaming: though some think differently. In both too
much is risked and too much expected for taxes to deter mankind from
engaging in either.
If in this historical research we look only to the antiquity of
stamping, we shall find that both the Greeks and the Romans had
soldiers marked in that manner; and, if we may be allowed to bring
together things so different, we might include under the like head
those runaway slaves who were marked by being branded; but I allude
here only to the stamped paper now in use, which was certainly invented
in Holland, a country where every necessary of life is subjected to
taxation. The States of the United Provinces having promised a reward
to any one who should invent a new impost, that might at the same
time bear light on the people and be productive to the government,
some person proposed that of _bezegelde brieven_, or stamped paper,
which was approved; and which Boxhorn, to whom we are indebted for this
information, considers as a very proper tax. He is of opinion also that
it might with great advantage be adopted in other countries[682]; and
this was really the case soon after his death, which happened in 1653.
Stamped paper was introduced in Holland on the 13th of August, 1624, by
an ordinance which represented the necessity and great benefit of this
new tax. Among other things advanced in its favour, it was said that
it would tend to lessen law-suits, and, on that account, would soon
recommend itself to neighbouring nations. What we are told therefore
by the author of an extract in Variétés Historiques, before-quoted,
that stamped paper began to be used in Holland and Spain so early as
the year 1555, is certainly false. The Spaniards may, indeed, have been
the first people who followed the example of the Dutch; for the author
above mentioned asserts, that he saw an act, executed by a notary at
Brussels, in 1668, which was written on stamped paper.
This tax was introduced in the electorate of Saxony by an ordinance of
the 22nd of March 1682; and into that of Brandenburg on the 15th of
July, in the same year. Bartholdus however says, but without producing
any proof[683], that stamped paper was used before that period in
Denmark, Florence, and Silesia. In Hanover it was first introduced, as
I think, on the 20th of February, 1709.
[The stamp-tax was first introduced into this country in the reign of
William and Mary, in 1693 (5 W. & M. c. 21). This act imposes stamps
upon grants from the crown, diplomas, contracts, probates of wills
and letters of administration, and upon all writs, proceedings, and
records in courts of law and equity; it does not however seem to
impose stamps upon deeds, unless these are enrolled at Westminster or
other courts of record. Two years afterwards, conveyances, deeds and
leases, were subjected to the stamp duty, and by a series of acts in
the succeeding reigns, every instrument recording a transaction between
two individuals was subjected to a stamp duty before it could be used
in a court of justice. These laws have been variously altered in later
times, but it is beyond our province to trace them further.]