Rick Mabry asked about the "poor tax" collected from concert receipts
in France in the mid-19th century, citing a letter from Berlioz in which
the composer "hopes that only ten percent will be taken." Apparently the
tax could run as high as 25 percent of the gross gate.  It was collected
by the government tax people, but I have no idea what criteria they used
to dispense it to the "poor." Since the financial responsibility for a
private concert fell on the shoulders of the sponsor and almost the only
way Berlioz could get his music heard was to sponsor such private concerts,
he was well aware of the difficulty of even "breaking even" financially
from such endeavors.  In a column he wrote for the Paris weekly Renovateur
in November 1834, he commented as follows: It's said that the Marquis
of Mascarille only wrote to avoid the persecution of book shop owners.
I only give concerts to earn some money for copyists, printers, security
guards, advertisers, lamp lighters, wood sellers, ushers - and the poor
tax man who only takes one fourth of the net receipts when one has not
made friendly prior arrangements with him.

Gene Halaburt