‘The Dreadful Monster’

In September 2021 Professor Chantal Stebbings was invited to join a panel at the Tax Research Network Annual Conference (Aston/online) to discuss Professor Julian Hoppit’s new book, The Dreadful Monster and its Poor Relations (Penguin, 2021), a fascinating and insightful study of the challenges of the unions of 1707 when Scotland joined England and Wales to form Great Britain, and 1801 when Ireland joined to form the United Kingdom. It is the first study of the union from the perspective of the imposition of taxes and public spending. The three panel members all commented from their own particular perspective, and Professor Stebbings’ was that of tax administration, and how far that was a potentially unifying system, or a divisive one. She explored the machinery of both indirect and direct taxes introduced in Scotland in 1707 and the extent to which the English administrative system met the challenges of territoriality.