Supply-Side Economics...Sorry, "Voodoo"...Throughout the Ages

I was aware of Ibn Khaldun, 14th century Islamic scholar, who chronicled supply-side economics of that era in what is now Egypt and Tunisia:

"In the early stages of the state, taxes are light in their incidence, but fetch in a large revenue...As time passes and kings succeed each other, they lose their tribal habits in favor of more civilized ones. Their needs and exigencies grow...owing to the luxury in which they have been brought up. Hence they impose fresh taxes on their subjects...[and] sharply raise the rate of old taxes to increase their yield...But the effects on business of this rise in taxation make themselves felt. For business men are soon discouraged by the comparison of their profits with the burden of their taxes...Consequently production falls off, and with it the yield of taxation."

And thanks to Ron Chernow's excellent biography of Alexander Hamilton, I see that Hamilton himself understood the same principles of taxation:

"[officials] can have no motive to abuse this power, because the motive of revenue will check its own extremes. Experience has shown that moderate duties are more productive than high ones."