Thus, tallies took on some of the same functions as coin – they served as money for the payment of taxes.Īfter 1694 the government issued paper 'tallies" as paper evidence of debt (i.e. The recipients would accept such tallies for goods sold at a profit or for coin, at a discount, and then would use them later, at Easter or Michaelmas, for the payment of the taxes. It takes only a little imagination to arrive at the next step: tallies were issued by the government in advance of taxes being paid in order to raise finds in emergencies or financial straits. These were presented at Michaelmas with the balance of taxes then due. The first payment, made at Eastertime, was evidenced by giving the taxpayer a tally stick notched to indicate partial payment received, with the same lengthwise split to record, for both parties, the payment made. By the time of Henry II taxes were paid two times a year. Over time, the role of tally sticks evolved and expanded. Heny adopted this method of tax record keeping in England. To prevent alteration or counterfeiting, the sticks were cut in half lengthwise, leaving one half of the notches on each piece, one of which was given to the taxpayer, which could compared for accuracy by reuniting the pieces.
Tally sticks worked better than faulty memory or notches on barn doors, as were sometimes used. To record production, medieval European scribes used a crude accounting device – notches on sticks or "tallies" (from the Latin talea meaning "twig" "stake"). in goods, based on the productive capacity of the land under the care of the tax-paying serf or lesser noble. King Henry I, son of William the Conqueror, ascended the English throne in 1100 A.D.At that time, long before the invention of the printing press, taxes were generally paid in kind – i.e.
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