This is a request for help--does anyone know a good history of various govt attempts to impose or relax inheritance/estate taxes? In his biography of Schumpeter, Wolfgang Stolper notes Schumpeter's warning that inheritance taxes may harm the basic motivatation to create a family position-- "that tendency to accumulate in order *not* to consume". (Quoted on pg. 357 of Joseph Alois Schumpeter: public life of a private man). I am interested as well, then, if there is any treatment of the history of economic thought on inheritance taxes. It seems that Schumpeter, who considered Francis Galton (!) as one of the three greatest sociologists (Vico and Marx being the others), thought it important that ability, as well as wealth, runs in stocks. Thanks in advance, Rakesh Bhandari
