Beard tax

File:Beard token.jpg

A beard tax is a governmental policy that requires men to pay for the privilege of wearing a beard. The most well documented beard tax was in place in Russia during the 18th century.

Russia

File:Бородовые знаки 1705-1725.gif

In 1698,{{cite book |last1=Corson |first1=Richard |title=Fashions in Hair: The First Five Thousand Years |edition=3rd |location=London |publisher=Peter Owen Publishers |year=2005 |page=220 |isbn=978-0720610932 }} Tsar Peter I of Russia instituted a beard tax as part of an effort to bring Russian society in line with Western European models. To enforce the ban on beards, the tsar empowered police to forcibly and publicly shave those who refused to pay the tax.{{cite news |last=Worthington |first=Daryl |url=http://www.newhistorian.com/historys-strangest-tax-peter-great-puts-price-beards/7157/ |title=History's Strangest Tax? Peter the Great Puts a Price on Beards |work=New Historian |location=London |publisher=Forgotten Books |date=9 April 2016 |accessdate=2016-12-27 }} Resistance to going clean shaven was widespread with many believing that it was a religious requirement for a man to wear a beard,{{citation |last=Walsh |first=Devan |title=Analysis of Peter the Great's Social Reforms and the Justification of the Reactions from the General Public |year=2015 |url=http://www.wou.edu/history/files/2015/08/Walsh-Devan.pdf |accessdate=2016-12-27 }} and the Russian Orthodox Church declared being clean-shaven as blasphemous.{{cite news|title=Why Peter the Great Established a Beard Tax|last=Eschner|first=Kat|date=5 September 2017|work=Smithsonian Magazine|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/why-tsar-peter-great-established-beard-tax-180964693/|accessdate=2021-07-29}}

The tax levied depended upon the status of the bearded man: those associated with the Imperial Court, military, or government were charged 60 rubles annually;{{efn|The rubles under Peter the Great contained 312.1 grains of silver, so 60 rubles represented about 925 grams (two pounds) of pure silver and 100 rubles represented about 1.5 kg of pure silver.{{Cite book |last=Kelly |first=Patrick |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-spPAAAAcAAJ&pg=PT168 |title=The Universal Cambist and Commercial Instructor, Being a Full and Accurate Treatise on the Exchanges, Monies, Weights and Measures of All Trading Nations and Their Colonies: With an Accurate Account of Their Banks Public Funds and Paper Currencies |date=1821 |publisher= |location=London |pages=167 |language=en}} Two half-kopeks was one-hundredth of one ruble, or the equivalent of 15 grams (half an ounce) of silver.}} wealthy merchants were charged 100 rubles per year while other merchants and townsfolk were charged 60 rubles per year; Muscovites were charged 30 rubles per year; and peasants were charged two half-kopeks every time they entered a city.{{cite web |url=http://www.runivers.ru/bookreader/book9812/#page/283/mode/1up |title=Указ Императора Петра I — О бритiи бородъ и усовъ всякаго чина людямъ, кромѣ поповъ и дьяконовъ, о взятiи пошлины съ тѣхъ, которые сего исполнить не захотятъ, и о выдачѣ заплатившимъ пошлину знаковъ |language=Russian |trans-title=Decree of Tsar Peter I — Concerning Beards and Mustaches of Certain Ranks of People, Exempting Priests and Deacons, and Levying a Fee and Issuing a Mark to Those Who Do Not Wish to Shave |date=16 January 1705 |accessdate=2016-12-27 }}

The tax raised an average of 3,588 rubles annually from 1705 to 1708. However, from a financial standpoint, the tax was unsuccessful due both to the relatively low number of people unwilling to shave their beards and an overestimation of the ability of the Russian state to administer and collect the tax.{{cite journal|title=Is It Possible to Make Money from Beards? The beard tax and Russian state economics at the beginning of the eighteenth century|last=Akelev|first=Evgenii|journal=Cahiers du monde russe|date=2020|volume=61|issue=1|pages=81–104|issn=1252-6576|doi=10.4000/monderusse.11923|s2cid=230626454|url=https://journals.openedition.org/monderusse/11923 }} In 1772, the tax was formally repealed by Catherine the Great.{{cite news|title=Five Facts: Peter the Great's beard tax|last=Tebben|first=Gerald|work=Coin World|date=15 April 2015|url=https://www.coinworld.com/voices/gerald-tebben/_peter_the_greatsb.html|accessdate=2021-07-29}}

= Beard token =

Those who paid the tax were required to carry a "beard token" ({{langx|ru|Бородовой знак}}) or "beard kopek" ({{lang|ru|бородовая копейка}}).{{cite web |url=http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/article/2009/11/20091124175845fjreffahcs0.5918848.html |title=Smithsonian Rare Russian Coin Collection Seeks Exhibition Sponsor |last=Schaffer |first=Jonathan |publisher=US Department of State |date=25 November 2009 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111013182924/http://www.america.gov/st/eur-english/2009/November/20091124175845FJreffahcS0.5918848.html |archivedate=2011-10-13 |accessdate=2016-12-28 }} This was a copper or silver token with a Russian Eagle on the reverse and on the obverse the lower part of a face with nose, mouth, whiskers, and beard. Several versions were minted between the issuance of the decree and its lifting in 1772.{{cite news |last=Mancini |first=Mark |url=http://mentalfloss.com/article/55772/time-peter-great-declared-war-facial-hair |title=The Time Peter the Great Declared War on Facial Hair |work=Mental Floss |date=29 March 2014|accessdate=2016-12-27 }} The first token minted in 1698 or 1699 was a simple copper penny of which only two specimens have been found.{{Cite news |last=Миронович |first=Ольга |title=У сенсационной находки псковских археологов нет цены — Татьяна Ершова |language=ru |trans-title=The sensational find of Pskov archaeologists has no price — Tatyana Ershova |work=МК |date= 2018-08-15 |location=Pskov, Russia |url=https://www.mk-pskov.ru/culture/2018/08/15/u-sensacionnoy-nakhodki-pskovskikh-arkheologov-net-ceny-tatyana-ershova.html |access-date=2023-01-03}} It was followed by the more common round, copper token minted in 1705 and again in 1710. A rhomboid version was issued in 1724 and 1725.{{cite book|editor-first=Friedrich|editor-last=von Schrötter|title=Wörterbuch der Münzkunde|language=de|trans-title=Dictionary of Coin Studies|date=1970|publisher=Walter de Gruyter & Co.|location=Berlin, Germany|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VY1w9ZS5-_wC&pg=PA63|page=63|isbn =978-3-11-001227-9|accessdate=2021-08-01}} Walter Hawkins published a paper in 1845 illustrating an example of the token from his own collection and describing the history of the tax in Russia.{{cite book|last=Hawkins|first=Walter|editor=John Yonge Akerman|title=The Numismatic Chronicle and Journal of the Numismatic Society|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-3s9AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA153|accessdate=2016-12-27|volume=7|year=1845|publisher=Taylor & Walton|location=London|pages=153–155|chapter=Russian Beard Token}}

The 1699 and 1705 versions were inscribed with the words "money taken" ({{lang|ru|ДЕНГИ ВЗѦТЫ}}) on the obvers, and the date in Cyrillic numerals ({{lang|ru|҂АѰЕ ГОДѸ}}, "Year 1705") on the reverse of the 1705 token; the 1710 version was largely the same with an updated date ({{lang|ru|҂АѰІ}}, "1710"). The rhomboid version of 1724/1725 was smooth on the reverse with the phrase "beard tax taken" ({{lang|ru|СБОРОДЫ ПОШЛИНА ВЗЯТА}}) on the obverse and "the beard is a superfluous burden" ({{lang|ru|БОРОДА ЛИШЬНАѦ ТѦГОТА}}) on the edge. The date on the later tokens was written in Arabic numerals.{{cite book |last1=Florensky |first1=Pavel |authorlink=Pavel Florensky |title=The Pillar and Ground of the Truth: An Essay in Orthodox Theodicy in Twelve Letters |location=Princeton, New Jersey |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1997 |page=535 |isbn=978-0691032436 }}{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary |title=Бородовой знак |url=http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/brokgauz_efron/15302/%D0%91%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B9 |year=1907 |location=Saint Petersburg |accessdate=2016-12-27 }}

England

A persistent legend claims that King Henry VIII of England, who wore a beard himself, introduced a tax on beards, and that his eventual successor Elizabeth I tried unsuccessfully to increase the tax.{{cite book |last1=Andrews |first1=William G. |url=http://www.loyalbooks.com/download/text/At-the-Sign-of-the-Barbers-Pole-by-Andrews.txt |format=text |title=At the Sign of the Barber's Pole: Studies in Hirsute History |location=Cottingham, Yorkshire, England |publisher=J.R. Tutin |year=1904 |isbn=978-1590210819 |accessdate=2016-12-28 }} Contemporary documentation of the Tudor beard tax is lacking, and The National Archives has no record of such a tax having been instituted.{{cite web |url=https://dhhliteraryagency.wordpress.com/2014/11/11/moustaches-whiskers-beards-lucinda-hawksley/ |title=DHH Author Blog: Moustaches, Whiskers & Beards – Lucinda Hawksley |last=Hawksley |first=Lucinda |date=11 November 2014 |accessdate=2016-12-28 }}

France

The bearded Francis I of France received approval from the pope in the early 1500s to levy a tax on priests' beards in part to fund his wars with the Holy Roman Empire. This led to a divide between the wealthier court ecclesiastics who could afford the tax and poorer village priests who could not.{{cite book|last=Dulaure|first=Jacques-Antoine|title=Pogonologia, Or a Philosophical and Historical Essay on Beards|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rxYFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA106|year=1786|publisher=R. Thorn|location=London, England|page=106}}{{cite book|editor1-last=Ripley|editor1-first=George |editor2-last=Dana|editor2-first=Charles Anderson|title=The New American Cyclopædia: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oklOAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA421|volume=II|year=1881|publisher=D. Appleton & Co.|location=New York|pages=420–421}}

Yemen

In 1936, the Kingdom of Yemen introduced a "no-beard tax", which meant men who were clean-shaven had to pay a tax in lieu of growing a beard.{{cite journal|title=Among the State Tax Commissions|last=Long|first=Henry F.|journal=The Bulletin of the National Tax Association|volume=XXII|number=1|date=October 1936|page=10|jstor=41786672}} This policy differed from the approach taken in other Islamic nations where tradition and sharia law have been used to require the growing of beards under threat of punishment.{{cite news|title=Every Man In Mosul Ordered To Grow A Beard|date=April 29, 2015|last=Paraszcuk|first=Joanna|publisher=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|url=https://www.rferl.org/a/every-man-in-mosul-ordered-to-grow-a-beard/26985105.html}}