Rex Trulove
Although ‘gabelle’ isn’t a common conversational word, it does have a very interesting origin, from a historical standpoint.
Gabelle is a tax and for most of its history, it specifically refers to a tax on salt. The origin is the Arabic word, ‘qabala’, which means “he received”. Qabala became the Italian word, ‘gabella’, which is a duty. The word was then transformed into the French word, gabelle.
You might wonder why there would be a tax on salt. That is part of the interesting history behind it. It should be remembered that taxes are primarily meant as a means of making the wealthiest people even richer. Salt is a substance that people need, which makes it ideal to tax. Most people wouldn’t be able to avoid paying the tax.
The story actually began around 1229, when King Louis IX and France came into control of part of the Mediterranean coast and the Rhone Estuary. A number of ponds were built where saltwater could be converted into salt by evaporation.
In 1259, King Charles I took royal control over the salt ponds. In 1341, Philip VI applied the royal tax on salt and made it a permanent tax. To make sure that it would apply to everyone, the French government established a requirement whereby every person had to buy a minimum amount of salt per week and the only legal source of salt were the salt ponds. In some areas, that weekly requirement of salt worked out to 7 kg of salt per person per year.
Naturally, the salt tax or gabelle was extremely unpopular. In 1790, during the French Revolution, the gabelle was repealed. That didn’t last long. Napoleon started it up again in 1806. It was later again ended, then started again. The gabelle was finally abolished in 1945, after the French liberation at the end of World War II.
Gabelle stands as one of the most unpopular taxes in history and the word is still in existence. The full French name of the tax, incidentally, was Pays de grandes gabelles.
That never resting Napoleon 🙂
Yes, but to be fair, it is like so many politicians before and since; if it moves, tax it. If it stops moving, tax it more.
Thank you for sharing this story of the salt tax, I have heard of the Boston Tea Party since it was due to the tax on tea by the British government on their colony in America.
The revolutionary war was largely caused by the taxes, mostly on tea. The gabelle was just as unpopular in France. Unfortunately, governments still like taxing anything they can think of, thinking that increased taxes means more money to spend. Of course, it really doesn’t.
That is why I get very angry when politicians of any party or nation say “We want the rich pay their fair share of taxes” as a smoke screen that raising taxes will level the playing field.
They don’t want people to realize that the wealthiest 5% in the US already pay 95% of the taxes. The tax reform we had at the end of last year is widely popular because it has helped people from the middle and upper-income levels and it has meant that more companies are expanding, paying higher wages, and giving better benefits.
We are right at the point where there aren’t as many workers as there are jobs to fill, which drives up the average wages. That is good news for workers and it is something that hasn’t happened since the 1980’s. This was spurred on by *lowering* taxes.
The government actually makes more money in this situation because more people are working and paying taxes.
Thank you for the input of this matter.
Interesting post mind-blowing!
This post is one that makes a mind wonder about the word.
True, but they figure out how to tax the strangest things, then try to tell us that the tax is for OUR good.
This was an interesting one. Never thought about tax on salt or this word. Good knowledge Red.
It goes to show that people sometimes figure out a way to tax almost anything.