The finance act of 1862 and its effect on the economy

Abstract

Abstract Research into Swedish legal history has been only slightly occupied with financial law, particularly the tax system. Where its historical development has been the object of attention, the description has usually stopped at the formal decisions. While the changes in the system have been reported the effects of these changes on the economy and its development do not seem to have attracted interest. In earlier times, the tax system was also distinctly fiscal. The taxes were intended to provide income for the State, and only in exceptional cases should the introduction of a new tax be meant to influence development. The taxes on luxuries, introduced during the eighteenth and the earlier years of nineteenth centuries, might possibly have had an ulterior purpose of reducing the use of the taxed luxury articles; in the main, however, the idea behind the new taxes must have been that the luxury articles were suitable means of increasing the Crown's income. No investigations into the effects of the new laws appear to have been made; not until recently has there been a general discussion concerning the effects of the tax system and the possibilities of influencing the economic development via various kinds of taxes and payments.