RE: What Do You Know Today That You Didn't Know Yesterday?
October 28, 2019 at 2:40 pm
(This post was last modified: October 28, 2019 at 2:41 pm by BrianSoddingBoru4.)
The phrase 'daylight robbery' originally had nothing to do with especially bold muggers or insanely overpriced shops (although it has come to mean the latter).
In the 1690s, the court of William III proposed to tax incomes. This idea was wildly unpopular not because people objected to being taxed, but because they felt that their incomes were none of the Crown's business. So, an alternative plan was adopted whereby houses with above a certain number of windows would be taxed as other property, but at a higher rate (this amounted to basically the same thing as taxing incomes: the more windows you had, the bigger your house was, and the bigger your house was, the more money you had).
People who didn't want to pay the increase would get round it by bricking up enough of their windows to qualify for the lower rate. They felt that having to do so meant they were being robbed of daylight, hence 'daylight robbery'.
Boru
addendum: Yes, kids - I watch a LOT of Q.I.
In the 1690s, the court of William III proposed to tax incomes. This idea was wildly unpopular not because people objected to being taxed, but because they felt that their incomes were none of the Crown's business. So, an alternative plan was adopted whereby houses with above a certain number of windows would be taxed as other property, but at a higher rate (this amounted to basically the same thing as taxing incomes: the more windows you had, the bigger your house was, and the bigger your house was, the more money you had).
People who didn't want to pay the increase would get round it by bricking up enough of their windows to qualify for the lower rate. They felt that having to do so meant they were being robbed of daylight, hence 'daylight robbery'.
Boru
addendum: Yes, kids - I watch a LOT of Q.I.
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson