Title: Licence for One Male Servant
Publisher: Inland Revenue
Publication Date: 1871
Binding: No Binding
Book Condition: Very Good
Edition: 1st
13.5 x 17 cm. Licence printed in red on pale blue paper. 15 shillings in 1871 was the equivalent of 3 days wages of a skilled tradesman. Lord North, the Georgian Prime Minster who lost America , didn t just favour the famous tax on tea. In 1777 he proposed a levy on the luxury item of the moment: the non-essential male servant. Ostensibly aimed at the wealthy, the new Male Servants Tax attempted to make a distinction between productive labour and conspicuous consumption, necessary work and idle luxury . Employers of the liveried, bewigged and powdered were to pay one guinea a year per male servant, including all butlers, footmen, grooms, gamekeepers and coachmen. Over the next 100 years, the Male Servants Tax was amended to the extent that it became the equivalent of purchasing a dog license. Even after the social upheavals of the Great War, it still brought in a steady income for the government. According to Winston Churchill, during the fiscal year 1923-4, 173,363 licenses were sold, producing a net revenue of £130,009. Always contentious, it was still being discussed in the House of Commons ten years later. During the 1930 s, questions were even being asked about its negative effect on tourism, on the basis that foreign visitors who liked to travel with their own chauffeurs, were not choosing to come to Britain because they did not want buy a license for them. However, the most pressing argument against the tax was the one first put forward by Lord North s opponents back in the 1770 s and 80 s: imposing a duty on male servants discouraged male employment. In an era of economic depression and chronic unemployment, the tax had to go! The Male Servants Tax was eventually repealed in 1937. Arthur Hugh Smith-Barry (1843-1925) was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. In 1867 he became an M.P. for County Cork, an Anglo-Irish Conservative politician, who owned an estate comprised of 12,890 acres in county Cork, 79 acres in Cork city, 8,620 acres in county Tipperary and 6,239 acres in county Louth. Smith-Barry played two first-class cricket matches for the Marylebone Cricket Club, playing once in 1873 and once in 1875 with W.G. Grace in his team, at their Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London. In 1902 Arthur Hugh Smith-Barry was created Baron Barrymore of Barrymore, county Cork. His only son James had died as an infant in 1871 and consequently the barony became extinct on Barrymore's death. Marbury Hall was a country house in Marbury, near Northwich, Cheshire, England. Several houses existed on the site from the 13th century, which formed the seat successively of the Marbury, Barry and Smith-Barry families, until 1932. An extensive collection of artwork and sculpture was housed at the hall from 1801 until the 1930s. The final house was extensively remodelled by Anthony Salvin in the 1850s. Intriguing original 149 year old ephemera, optimally being displayed in a mount and frame. Bookseller Inventory # 4235