In the mid-nineteenth century, the assessment of the income tax was entrusted to personnel who were independent of the Board of Inland Revenue and this constitutional division between local and central authority was the corner-stone of the Victorian income tax. It was envisaged that the punishment for evasion, too, should be dealt with essentially at a local level and the statute provided for several different means by which this could be achieved. It soon became clear, however, that such a system was ill-equipped to deal adequately with under- or non-assessment, because the sanctions by which penalties could be imposed were ineffectual both as a deterrent and as a punitive measure in instances of substantial and protracted evasion. In the third quarter of the nineteenth century, events occurred through which the Board was able, effectively, to seize the reins of assessment and to forge a method of punishment for evasion and it is this extra-statutory scheme which formed the nucleus of the modern system of punishing income tax evasion. The dissertation begins in 1842, the year in which the income tax was re-introduced as a temporary visitant and ends in 1880, the year in which the management of the income tax was mapped out as, more or less, a permanent feature of the fiscal scene. During this period, the method of dealing with tax evasion metamorphosed from one which was, in the main, in the grasp of the local administration to-one which was largely in the hands of the Inland Revenue Department. That this change took place without legislative intervention was the culmination of the social and administrative stresses and tensions that were tested by the operation of the income tax, which it is the purpose of this dissertation to explore.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse how the road allotment system functioned as an institution to mobilise resources and organise the provision of roads. Through this institution every peasant was made responsible for certain parts of a road. The analysis focuses on road repair and maintenance in the Swedish region of Västmanlands län c. 1750–1850. Previous research has described the allotment system as unfair, unprofessional and ineffective in providing a functioning road system and has contrasted it against modern road management based on cash taxes or fees, a central administrative body and professional engineers and workers. The results indicate that the allotment system under certain circumstances helped minimise administrative expenses for mobilising resources and organising work. Through the allotment system local resources throughout the area could be exploited and there was no need to convert tax revenue into output. When roads had been divided into parts it was not necessary to continually plan and manage work efforts, and through the quality inspections punishment could easily be enforced and road standards guaranteed. The allotment model also enabled peasants to perform road work at a convenient time and to make long-term improvements in their road parts. This was only possible when there were no ambiguities concerning limits and occupants of every road section, and a high degree of societal continuity, which was enabled by tying the obligation to homesteads through a constant taxation index. Without these preconditions there was a risk that a section of the road was not maintained at all, making it necessary to redistribute road parts, which was a complicated, time-consuming, and costly process. This was due to difficulties in making small adjustments without influencing all road parts within a large area. Furthermore, an equal distribution of road sections was hard to accomplish since traffic and natural conditions varied, and every part was at a different distance from the gravel pit and from the peasants’ farms. The possibility to mobilise resources within the allotment system was also restricted in time and by the availability of maintenance materials. / Det svenska vägnätets uppbyggnad 1750-1944