[Verse 1]
In nineteen-eighteen Schumpeter wrote the autopsy of a throne,
"Crisis of the Tax State" — war bills turn solid stone to loan.
Gunpowder and musket pay bleed any treasury dry,
Forcing kings to beg for credit where they once could simply buy.
Every cannon fired abroad rewrites the books at home,
War finance is the chisel carving empires out of loam.
[Chorus]
Tribute, domain, tax, and fiscal — four rungs up the ladder of the crown,
Schumpeter said the war bill breaks the old state down.
Податок, борг, довіра — tax, debt, and trust combined,
Держава росте на кредиті — the state stands on credit, line by line.
[Verse 2]
Picture now a sovereign who "lives of his own" estate,
Rent from crown manors, feudal dues — no parliament to debate.
Prerogative revenue fills the royal chest alone,
Tudor England straddles the line, half domain, half tax state grown.
Henry's purse still smells of land, yet subsidies creep in,
A hinge between two worlds, neither fully out nor in.
[Chorus]
Tribute, domain, tax, and fiscal — four rungs up the ladder of the crown,
Schumpeter said the war bill breaks the old state down.
Податок, борг, довіра — tax, debt, and trust combined,
Держава росте на кредиті — the state stands on credit, line by line.
[Verse 3]
Then estates and parliaments start gripping the purse tight,
Consent becomes the currency, refusal is their right.
Revenue per capita climbs, tax share starts to swell,
Compare the states by numbers — let the ledger ring the bell.
No king can simply levy now without the Commons' nod,
The tax state trades divine right for a bargaining rod.
[Verse 4]
Hanoverian London backs its bonds with tax to come,
Long-term borrowing sustained — that's the fiscal state, the sum.
Debt-to-GDP's the measure, interest eats the budget whole,
From domain hall to Threadneedle Street, four rungs toward one goal.
Consols and coffeehouse brokers turn promises to gold,
Trust becomes the engine pulling empire, bought and sold.
[Bridge]
Interest burden, debt-to-GDP, revenue per head,
Tax share of the national pie — these numbers raise the dead
Of empires built on borrowing, of wars that states could wage,
Держава платить відсотки — turning fiscal page.
Домен, податок, фіскальна — watch the ledger climb,
Four stages of a kingdom learning how to buy its time.
[Outro]
Tribute, domain, tax to fiscal — борг стає довіра,
From Tudor coffers to Threadneedle Street, the credit must mature.
Схема проста: consent plus time plus debt,
Платимо, віримо, будуємо — the fiscal state is set.