The Age of the Democratic Revolution. A Political History of Europe and America, 1760-1800

116 Chapter VI

APPROXIMATE ANNUAL TAX BURDEN PER HEAD

IN ENGLISH SHILLINGS

About 1765 About 1785

United Provinces 35

Great Britain 26 34

Ireland 6s 8d 10

Massachusetts 1 18

Connecticut 7d

New York 8d

Pennsylvania 1

Maryland 1

Virginia 5d 10

France 21

Highest Generalities

Paris 56

Rouen 31

Lyon 25

Lowest Generalities

Strasbourg 12

Besançon 12

Perpignan 12

Rennes 10

Austrian Monarchy 12

Austria proper 21

Bohemia- Moravia 14

Hungary proper 12

Transylvania 7

Lombardy 5

Austrian Netherlands 3s 6d

The British Americans were already a mature people in many respects. They gave
birth to men of urbanity and polish, and even of great intellectual range. The sea-
board cities were not without elegance, though scarcely as sophisticated as even
secondary cities in Europe, such as Dublin or Lyons. The population in 1760 was
probably more than a quarter of that of Great Britain, or more than the ratio of
Canada to Great Britain in population today. The economy was not primitive; it is
said that British America produced more iron than Great Britain, and thirty per
cent of all ships in British commerce in 1775 were built in America. There was
much political life in town meetings of New England and county courthouses of