Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A tax, especially the salt tax imposed in France before 1790.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun See
gabel .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun France A tax, especially on salt.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
tax ; especially, the tax onsalt levied in pre-Revolutionary France.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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One of the grievances that fueled the French Revolution of 1789 was the salt tax, also called the gabelle .
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Then it was suggested that the Powers should do this through certain sections of the country, and then, again, that they should intervene through control of the institutions and organizations of China as, for instance, international control of railways, international control of land taxes, international control of the salt gabelle, which is more or less under international control; and of course the customs and the postal service.
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King John was keen to fight; the States General gave him the means for carrying on war, by establishing the odious "gabelle" on salt, and other imposts.
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Suppose a share assessed to each person of one or two francs for the consumption of salt and you obtain ten or a dozen millions; the modern "gabelle" disappears, the poor breathe freer, agriculture is relieved, the State receives as much, and no tax-payer complains.
Bureaucracy Honor�� de Balzac 1824
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King John was keen to fight; the States General gave him the means for carrying on war, by establishing the odious "gabelle" on salt, and other imposts.
Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois — Complete [Court memoir series] Queen Marguerite 1584
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King John was keen to fight; the States General gave him the means for carrying on war, by establishing the odious "gabelle" on salt, and other imposts.
Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois — Volume 3 [Court memoir series] Queen Marguerite 1584
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It would be a modern gabelle: everyone consumes fuel one way or another.
Greg Mankiw Pumps for a Higher Gas Tax, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009
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Embrun; but I am a King, my power is great, my wealth boundless; and, were it otherwise, I would double the gabelle on my subjects, rather than not pay my debts to you both.
Quentin Durward 2008
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The result was the hated gabelle, the infamous salt tax that became a major source of revenue for the old regime in France, and a leading cause of revolution in 1789.4
Champlain's Dream David Hackett Fischer 2008
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The result was the hated gabelle, the infamous salt tax that became a major source of revenue for the old regime in France, and a leading cause of revolution in 1789.4
Champlain's Dream David Hackett Fischer 2008
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