What does "payment of fifteens" mean in the context of taxes and debt in 1601 England?

by pullarius1

In The Preamble to the Statute of Charitable Uses from 1601 England, one of the categories of charities is

the relief or redemption or prisoners or captives; and the aid or ease of any poor inhabitants covering payments of fifteens, setting out of soldiers, and other taxes.

What exactly is "payment of fifteens" or "setting out of soldiers"? I'd guess that "fifteens" is some type of tax, and charities would help the poor pay them?

The full context is here: https://books.google.com/books?id=_1IzAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA707&dq=%22Payment+of+fifteens%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiImMnFw9fKAhXMph4KHRWNClQQ6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q=%22Payment%20of%20fifteens%22&f=false

Thanks.

SheepExplosion

A fifteenth is, as the term suggests, a tax of 1/15th. Shakespeare uses the term to comic effect in Henry VI Part II 4.7:17-20 (see here). This case law book specifies that a fifteenth is levied on movable property, but I would not trust its accuracy for all uses, particularly since the OED gives:

A fifteenth part; esp. in Eng. Hist. A tax of one-fifteenth formerly imposed on personal property.

The "setting out of soldiers" is similarly a tax used to raise and equip an armed force.

davepx

The fifteenth - here fifteen - was an occasional tax from the 1330s to the 1620s, initially supposed to be a fifteenth of the value of non-exempt movable goods (a tenth in boroughs), but later levied as a conventional assessment by locality, its value eroding with the inflation of the 16th & early 17th centuries. Those with less than 5s of goods, later 10s (I seem to recall seeing a possibly still later £1 too) were exempt, so the poor referred to are presumably those just above the threshold.

"Setting out of soldiers" is a new one on me, presumably likewise a tax for particular spending needs, in this case explicitly military. It might have been a short-lived Elizabethan levy.

Polybios

This submission was auto-removed because it contains a shortened url.

If you remove the shortened url, I can approve the post.

inaseaS

Hmm. I'm wondering if the custom of tipping 15%, common in the USA, is a descendant of this tax?