Lion's Share

Inequality and the Rise of the Fiscal State in Preindustrial Europe

Inbunden, Engelska, 2019

Av Guido Alfani, Matteo Di Tullio, Milan) Alfani, Guido (Universita Commerciale Luigi Bocconi, Italy) Di Tullio, Matteo (Universita degli Studi di Pavia

679 kr

Beställningsvara. Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar

Fri frakt för medlemmar vid köp för minst 249 kr.

This is the most in-depth analysis of inequality and social polarization ever attempted for a preindustrial society. Using data from the archives of the Venetian Terraferma, and compared with information available for elsewhere in Europe, Guido Alfani and Matteo Di Tullio demonstrate that the rise of the fiscal-military state served to increase economic inequality in the early modern period. Preindustrial fiscal systems tended to be regressive in nature, and increased post-tax inequality compared to pre-tax - in contrast to what we would assume is the case in contemporary societies. This led to greater and greater disparities in wealth, which were made worse still as taxes were collected almost entirely to fund war and defence rather than social welfare. Though focused on Old Regime Europe, Alfani and Di Tullio's findings speak to contemporary debates about the roots of inequality and social stratification.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2019-02-07
Mått239 x 236 x 18 mm
Vikt499 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
SerieCambridge Studies in Economic History - Second Series
Antal sidor244
FörlagCambridge University Press
ISBN9781108476218

Tillhör följande kategorier

Guido Alfani is Professor of Economic History at Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi, Milan. His recent works include Calamities and the Economy in Renaissance Italy: The Grand Tour of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2013) and, with Cormac Ó Gráda, Famine in European History (Cambridge, 2017). Matteo Di Tullio is a research fellow in early modern history at Università degli Studi di Pavia, Italy and a member of the Dondena Centre at Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi. He is the author of The Wealth of Communities: War, Resources and Cooperation in Renaissance Lombardy (2014).

'Guido Alfani and Matteo Di Tullio take two giant strides forward in the early history of inequality. First they expand our view of Europe's wealth inequalities over several centuries and across regions. Then they show how the state itself may have been a significant source of the rise in inequality, with its growing fiscal pressure on the poor.' Peter H. Lindert, co-author of Unequal Gains: American Growth and Inequality since 1700