Andrea Muller (X) Mar 13, 2014:

I googled for https://www.google.de/#q="steuerfuß" deutschland 18 Jahrhund... and the results look like tax rate (%), for example p2 of pdf: http://www.digitalis.uni-koeln.de/Schnapperar/schnapperar_1_...
There is another document where it looks like a different tax base has been set for different communities: http://geschichte-steben.de/suchergebnis/browse/3/artikel
/550/1759-ortsbeschreibung.html
If you have enough time and would really like to know, maybe you can email the man from Geschichtsverein Bad Steben?
(Hope there aren't too many typos in this, I am having a really bad day today..

BrigitteHilgner Mar 13, 2014:

@ asker Please take a closer look at the source I provided: The first comment applies to Switzerland (as I mentioned in my first discussion entry) but then you have:
"Schlagen Sie auch in anderen Wörterbüchern nach"
The explanation following after that does NOT relate to Switzerland.

Ann Marie Ackermann, JD (asker) Mar 13, 2014:

Brigitte -- your link was helpful, and the reference to the Steuerfuß being adjusted to the Gemeinde might apply here.

But my source is German, not Swiss, and the village it discusses is German (Kingdom of Württemberg in the 18th c., to be exact), so that the Swiss terminology might not have the same meaning in Germany.

BrigitteHilgner Mar 12, 2014:

Erst kommen die Schweizer ... aber dann folgt eine brauchbare Erklärung:
http://universal_lexikon.deacademic.com/124926/Steuerfuß

philgoddard Mar 12, 2014:

I think you've answered your own question - it sounds like the basis on which they were charged tax, perhaps on a notional taxable income.