HISTORICAL MAPS WERE CREATED TO FACILITATE THE TITHE SYSTEM OF TAXATION
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Note from Russell Earl Kelly,
PHD: this is yet another proof that tithes were only food even late in Europe. “Later
(than the 18th century),” the article says, “laws enabled the Church
to convert tithes paid in kind into financial tax [into money],”
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We can investigate our past
without digging simply by studying old maps. Accurate mapping was born out of
the navigation in the great age of exploration from the 15th century.
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Prior to that, surviving maps
were created to facilitate the tithe system of taxation. Attempts to map the
landscape in detail were mainly due to military needs arising from wars.
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KEY PARAGRAPH
Most of the maps that survive
in records offices from before the 18th century are to do with land tenure and
taxation. In Europe, the Church was a major landowner, and it derived much of
its wealth from the tithe system, whereby landowners obeyed the Biblical
instruction to pay to the Church a tithe (or one-tenth) of their income. Later
laws enabled the Church to convert tithes paid in kind into financial tax,
where the landowners could donate a piece of land to the church as to
perpetuity to free themselves from the annual charge.
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As a result, some of the
earliest maps to survive show details as land boundaries, field names and the
names of landowners and tenants take the form of tithe maps. They provide a
detailed picture at the time they were surveyed.
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Where can you find
historic maps online?
Thanks to digitization, more
maps are available on the internet. Libraries such as the Perry-Castaneda
Library Collection at the University of Texas in Austin that not only provide
access to their own collections, but also provide links to tens of thousands of
historic maps from all over the world. The link to the university's website is
www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/
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Old historical maps provide a
unique look into our past as a people. The older the map is the greater that
peek into the past is. Many artifacts are found and debated as to whose they
were, what they were used for, why they were made and how were they made. Yet
maps visually feature undisputed surveys of rivers, roads, canals, railways,
settlements, cities, kingdoms, woods, fields and boundaries. Maps are a great
human treasure handed down from the ages. The true historical story is theirs
to tell.
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Deborah M.
Jones, Hubpages, June 21, 2012
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