Who Paid for a Doubtful Word

Taxed Costs and Assessed Duty in Four Decades of Litigation over One Stamp Duties Clause, 1884–1923

A research poster from the School of Settled Matters reads the taxed bills of costs in all 41 contested assessments under one head of a colonial stamp duties schedule, 1884–1923, against the duty each put in dispute. Costs ran to £3 4s for every pound of duty, taxpayers bore 62% of them, and sales lodged as agreements at the lower rate rose to 31% while the word stayed doubtful before falling to 9% after the appellate ruling that settled it.

@misc{slop_qid3sh,
  author       = {Anselm Threlkeld and Clemency Tredinnick and Sunniva Balogun},
  title        = {Who Paid for a Doubtful Word: Taxed Costs and Assessed Duty in Four Decades of Litigation over One Stamp Duties Clause, 1884–1923},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.qid3sh},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-poster-who-paid-for-qid3sh/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research poster},
}