The Tax Justice Network has launched a new web page called Offshore History. It is an attempt to collect into one place some of the most important documents related to the history of the offshore system, and to tax more generally.   The current page content is here. So far, it contains theseitems:

Oct 2010 - The rise and rise of Britain's tax haven empire. A look at some aspects of Britain's rush to set up and protect Caribbean tax havens from the 1970s.

Oct 2010 - Caroline Doggart, Tax Haven Woman. The story of a woman who became one of the world's first tax haven analysts, working for the Economist Intelligence Unit.

2010 - A history of tax havens, by Ronen Palan. A broad historical overview of the offshore system and its emergence.

Dec 2008 - History of Singapore's emergence as a tax haven. Original articles here, here andhere.

2006 - Taxation and American slavery. Robin Einhorn of the University of California Berkeleytraces the roots of anti-tax ideology in  American history to disputes about the taxation of slaves as persons and property.

Aug 2003 - a history of information exchange. A United Nations report in the wake of the Monterrey Consensus looking at how, among other things, the OECD stymied efforts by developing countries to get a fairer international tax system. Original document here.

Oct 2002 - No Accounting for Tax Havens.This paper by the Association for Accountancy & Business Affairs (AABA) examines selected issues and episodes in the history of the British Crown Dependency of Jersey. Chapter 6: A Legislature for Hire provides an especially instructive (and important) example of the ways in which private interests shape can shape offshore and onshore legislation.

Oct 1998 - The Edwards Report - before and after. A look at how a UK government report critical of UK-focused tax havens got whitewashed.

April 1998 - OECD report Harmful Tax Competition: an Emerging Global Issue. This report, critical of tax havens and tax competition, was killed by Washington lobbyists and U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill during the administration of George W. Bush. The story of how it was killed is available from a TaxAnalysts book review, here.

From 1995 - Taxanalysts Tax History project. With a heavily U.S.-focused view of tax history, it contains much detail about taxation - though relatively little about tax havens. For example:Four Things You Should Know About the Boston Tea Party.

January 1981 - The Gordon Report. Entitled Tax havens and their use by United States taxpayers: an overview, this was the first ever in-depth report on tax havens, by the U.S. Treasury. Highly critical of tax havens, it was published just as Ronald Reagan came to power, and was immediately forgotten about. Available in pdf, text and other versions.

Well worth the read and an invaluable resource.