The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #156912   Message #3701166
Posted By: GUEST,henryp
11-Apr-15 - 05:59 AM
Thread Name: Folk songs about taxes?
Subject: RE: Folk songs about taxes?
The Hearth Tax of 1662, sometimes referred to as chimney money, was abolished in 1689, largely on the initiative of William III.

England's Joy, For the Taking off of 'The Chimney-Money'

Now happy times are coming on, let's pray that they may last;
For now the Chimney Tax is gone, our chiefest care is past:
We'll in our Country cottage sing, and push the Jugg about;
We'll drink our health unto our King, till all our Liquor's out.

William IV came to the throne in 1830 and the Beerhouse Act of the same year was known as Billy's Beer Bill.

A Drop of Good Beer

Come one and all, both great and small,
With voices loud and clear,
And let us sing 'Bless Billy the King
Who bated the tax upon beer'.

For more, see The Sound of History by Roy Palmer