The Lion's Share
Inequality and the Rise of the Fiscal State in Preindustrial Europe

This is the most in-depth analysis of economic inequality and social polarization ever attempted for a preindustrial society.

Guido Alfani (Author), Matteo Di Tullio (Author)

9781108476218, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 7 February 2019

244 pages, 33 b/w illus. 1 map 21 tables
23.5 x 15.8 x 1.8 cm, 0.5 kg

'Based on extensive quantitative and qualitative research from archival documents, this book presents new data and new conclusions on an important and timely topic - the steady growth of inequality in societies across early modern Europe from the Black Death to the end of the eighteenth century.' Samuel Cohn, Jr, author of Epidemics: Hate and Compassion from the Plague of Athens to AIDS

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.

List of figures
List of tables
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. The Venetian fiscal system: centre and periphery
2. The rich and the poor
3. Economic inequality in the long run
4. Taxation, redistribution and inequality
Appendix: building regional distributions of wealth for the Republic of Venice and for Veneto
Archival sources
Printed sources
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ], European history [HBJD]