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The Wiki Man

It’s easy to sex up the business of paying tax

8 June 2019

9:00 AM

8 June 2019

9:00 AM

To fund the war against Napoleon in 1813, Princess Marianne of Prussia invented an ingenious tax-raising scheme. Wealthy Prussians were called on to hand their jewellery to the state; in exchange they were given iron replacements for the gold items they had donated.

Stamped on the iron replicas were the words ‘Gold gab ich für Eisen’.

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