taxes were never a 'thing' until recently in society, you do know that right?
We are getting off topic slightly -
State and federal inheritance taxes began after 1900, while the states (but not the federal government) began collecting sales taxes in the 1930s. The United States imposed income taxes briefly during the Civil War and the 1890s. In 1913, (wiki)
Are you kidding me? There were always taxes, but before there was no law to govern them. The people with the bigger sticks just took what they wanted.