The subject says it all… when you have a bunch of paperwork to do it’s called “red tape” so where did this expresion come from?
In pre-file-cabinet days, British bureaucrats bundled up related papers with red ribbons before shelving/cubbyholing them. Hence “red tape” = bureaucratic fussing.
From The Word Detective:
For the future, the easiest way to look up a phrase’s origin is just to type it and “etymology” into google. For instance, “red tape etymology” gives a page of good links.
ohhhhhhh! Great Trick! I didn’t know about that, thanks 
http://www.takeourword.com/Issue060.html answers your question. Scroll down, it’s not the first article on that page.
I saw a tv prog about HenryVIII and his divorces, especially the first one which led to the split with the RC church.
The correspondance with the Pope was bound with red tape indicating that it was royal mail so I’d say that the origin of red tape is older than 17thC by quite some.
This answer is not very GQ worthy, but I don’t have a source or link right now - will look though. I have previously heard it to be derived from there being bits of red tape for the purpose of hanging up one’s sword before entering the (British) houses of parliament.
Red tape! Tape of great rubrousness. Now that’s an interesting question. A poser. You want to know where red tape comes from, and we don’t want to waste a minute giving you the answer that you so dearly cherish. And why not? Isn’t gaining an answer to the little tchotchkes of life one of its more fulsome pleasures? Red tape. The great binder. The source of fervent frustrations and the symbol of bureaucratic boondoggling. The civil service’s uncivil service. Stalling filibustering make things as hard as possibl;e for the sake of controlling change and making Life easier combined with an autocratic and legalistic worldview that takes prode in not making exceptions nor realizing circumstances may vary from that shown in the advetisement. Red tape – conjuring visions of imperial China and royal cermonies under the carmine and crimson banners of suspended cellulose – where what you don’t see can hurt you if it wants to badly enough. Sticky stuff, red tape. Multiplies like coat hangers in an empty closet. Red tape! Tape of great rubrousness. Now that’s an interesting question. A poser. You want to know where red tape comes from, and we don’t want to waste a minute giving you the answer that you so dearly cherish. And why not? Isn’t gaining an answer to the little tchotchkes of life one of its more fulsome pleasures? Red tape. The great binder. The source of fervent frustrations and the symbol of bureaucratic boondoggling. The civil service’s uncivil service. Stalling filibustering make things as hard as possibl;e for the sake of controlling change and making Life easier combined with an autocratic and legalistic worldview that takes prode in not making exceptions nor realizing circumstances may vary from that shown in the advetisement. Red tape – conjuring visions of imperial China and royal cermonies under the carmine and crimson banners of suspended cellulose – where what you don’t see can hurt you if it wants to badly enough. Sticky stuff, red tape. Multiplies like coat hangers in an empty closet. Red tape…
No, I don’t think Red Tape means recursion, nice try though. 
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No, I don’t like the “hanging up sword” idea. I mentioned it because it has certainly been offered as an explanation before, but a quick search is much more on the side of the official documents being to blame, and its being introduced as a figure of speech by Charles Dickens.
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Dr. Paprika, are you trying to tempt someone to start a thread re. origin of “filibustering”? You were quite good at it, though. I do hope you are not a politican IRL.
searching on google for filibuster and etymology leads me to this page http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorf.htm#Filibuster where it says:
Filibuster:
This American political term derives from the Dutch vrijbuiter, or free-booter, a term applied to pirates in the Caribbean in the 16th century. In French and Spanish the word is translated as flibustier and filibustero respectively. It probably made its way into English through one of these languages (the exact path is unclear).
Throughout the 19th century, the term was applied to revolutionaries and guerilla fighters.
The modern legislative sense was common by the 1850s, probably adopted because the filibusterers were hijacking the debate much like a pirate would hijack a ship. This meaning is that of a senator or group of senators who continue to talk, often about irrelevant topics (reading the telephone book is a phrase often used), in order to prevent a vote on a particular subject. The rules of the U.S. Senate allow for unlimited debate, so as long as the vocal cords of the senators hold out, they can prevent legislation from moving forward. The term is technically not restricted to the U.S. Senate, but given the peculiar rules of this body it is most often used in reference to that body.
See, I am trainable
Although I still think Dr Paprika was trying to show off recursion, not filibustering but maybe thats because I’m a programmer at heart.
Celyn, you’re clearly correct in thinking that the “hanging up sword” theory is implausible - red tape was being used to tie up official documents long before cloakroom/coatcheck/swordcheck facilities were provided for MPs in the Palace of Westminster.
The real question is why red tape, as opposed to some other colour? I suspect that the real answer is much more mundane than casdave’s suggestion that red symbolised the monarchy. Was there some reason (cost?) why tape manufacturers preferred red?
APB,
I think the answer to your question is simply that red tape was cheaply made and, with few uses outside, pointless to nick.
Walrus
If you think red tape diffes substantially from filibuatering or recursion, you clearly havewn’t dealt with enough of it. Not that that’s your OP.
If you really want to know about the origins of “red tape,” please fill out form Z009-6-A which may be easily obtained from a deputy under-officer of information retrieval on the third tuesday of every august in years ending in a 0 or 9 or on the second thursday of every september in years ending in a 3 or 5 between the hours of 3 and 4 o’clock a.m.
In order to contact your local deputy under-officer of information retrieval at such times, please fill out the INDIGO and MARIGOLD copies of request order XLQ-114A-12-M-OASS-5-B in triplicate and deposit them in any one of five convenient recepticles which may be found at the peaks of Mounts Everest, K-2, McKinley, Kilimanjaro and St. Helens (temporarily closed for renovation) on May 33 (but only on leap year).