Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Tallage

TALLAGE, or Talliage (from the French tailler, i.e., a part cut out of the whole), appears to have signified at first a tax in general, but became afterwards confined in England to a special form of tax, the assessment upon cities, boroughs, and royal demesnes—in effect, a land tax. Like Scutage (q.v.) tallage was superseded by the subsidy system in the 14th century. The last occasion on which it was levied appears to be the year 1332. The famous statute of 25 Edw. I. (in some editions of the statutes 34 Edw. I.) De Tallagio non Concedendo, though it is printed among the statutes of the realm, and was cited as a statute in the preamble to the Petition of Right in 1627, and by the judges in John Hampden’s case in 1637, is probably an imperfect and unauthoritative abstract of the Confirmatio Cartarum. The first section enacts that no tallage or aid shall be imposed or levied by the king and his heirs without the will and assent of the archbishops, bishops, and other prelates, the earls, barons, knights, burgesses, and other freemen in the kingdom. Tallagium facere was the technical term for rendering accounts in the exchequer, the accounts being originally kept by means of tallies or notched sticks. The tellers (a corruption of talliers) of the exchequer were at one time important financial officers. The system of keeping the national accounts by tallies was abolished by 23 Geo. III. c. 82, the office of teller by 57 Geo. III. c. 84.