The expression, which gained popularity during America's own revolution, is a tribute to a well-known Englishman who opposed King Charles I's 'ship tax.'
When you ask the majority of Americans where the phrase "No taxation without representation!" originated, they'll probably say "American colonists protesting against Britain in the 1760s." However, the phrase's essence, if not its exact wording, dates back more than a century. We can also praise the British people themselves for it. It all began with a measure known as the "ship tax."
Since the early Middle Ages, English tradition has permitted the monarch to impose a specific levy on residents of coastal villages during times of war. They might fulfill the requirement by giving the Crown money to build ships, ships, or shipbuilding supplies (thus the term "ship tax"). Kings and Queens imposed the "tax" as a matter of royal prerogative, avoiding the inconvenience of obtaining the approval of Parliament as stipulated by the 1215 Magna Carta.
The monarchy got away with it for centuries as long as the tax only applied to a small section of the populace and only during a "national emergency."
James I expanded the ship tax to London in 1619, causing a stir, but Charles I, who succeeded him, caused an even bigger commotion about it just nine years later. Charles disbanded Parliament before enforcing the ship tax on all English counties in 1628, during a time of peace no less. Everyone was subject to it, and nobody could stop it. In the years that followed, the King strengthened it in the face of ferocious and escalating opposition.
Let's introduce John Hampden, a landowner from Buckinghamshire who was first elected to Parliament in 1621. Hampden's case was brought before the twelve judges of the Court of Exchequer after he refused to pay the entire balance of the ship tax the King claimed he owed. Hampden and his attorneys argued that the King lacked authority to impose the tax in the absence of consent from Parliament.
Despite the fact that Hampden lost the case by a vote of 7 to 5, Charles felt humiliated by how close the decision was. John Hampden was one of the first people the King tried to arrest when the English Civil War started in 1642. Taxation without representation, the topic he dared to challenge the King on, ended up becoming a crucial factor in that war.
Six years before Charles I was executed by beheading, in 1643, Hampden perished in war. Nearly four centuries later, Hampden is still regarded as a martyr for liberty, and countless cities and organizations bear his name in tribute. One illustration is the Virginia institution Hampden-Sydney College.
As the first American to advocate "no taxation without representation" prior to the Declaration of Independence, James Otis of Massachusetts is typically given this honor. In a letter from 1764, he claimed that "the very act of taxing, exercised over those who are not represented, appears to me to be depriving them of one of their most essential rights as freemen; and if continued, seems to be in effect an entire disfranchisement of every civil right."
John Hampden and James Otis, two libertarian patriots, went to war because their governments dared to impose taxes without the approval of elected lawmakers. As horrible as taxation without representation was in their day, I'll wager that given today's rates and the presence of representation, they would likely make a complaint once more.
