It is always good to look into history when considering the present and future. The History of Tax lectures, put on by the Worshipful Company of Tax Advisers and the CIOT, offer a good introduction. 

Early taxation looked at assets and consumption, on the basis that it was quite easy to measure how many sheep a man owned, or to count amphora of wine being brought into a city.

In fact, what we now call wealth taxation continued for centuries, alongside customs and excise duties. It was only in 1799, and, in reality, 1803, that William Pitt and Henry Addington introduced the taxation of income. Even then, income tax only became a permanent feature in the UK in 1853.