So, how did taxation work in the middle and dark ages (circa. 1000 AD to 1200 AD)?
I mean I am king. I have a bunch of dukes (or earl)who own land. They parcel their land out to a bunch of barons.
So they barons collect tax, and pay the duke their tax, who pays the king. Is that right?
Was tax payment typically in coin or in “stuff” (i.e. grain, or other foodstuffs)?
I am especially interested in the following groups:
Peasant Farmers
Merchants and Shopkeepers
Peasant Laborers
Military
Minor Nobles
If my question is to vague and you can help me clarify it please help me out!
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I’m no expert, but based on what I’ve read about life in medieval Europe (especially Barbara Tuchman’s The Calamitous Fourteenth Century), I’d have to say it depends on time and place. Eighth century Europe and Fourteenth century Europe were rather different.
Although trade and the use of coined money never ceased entirely, there were times and places when the market economy almost disappeared. Feudalism was based on the fact that it was impossible to maintain a centralized state. Without a professional army or bureaucracy, about all a king could do was enlist the fealty of various nobles and warlords. Their main contribution to the king was in manpower and supplies in times of war. For his everyday expenses, the king was expected to “live of his own”- i.e., support his court and household from his own lands.
Gradually, the old system of tribute was replaced with monetary contributions. But even well into post-Renaissance times the ability of kings to effectively tax was often haphazard. A hodgepodge of customs duties, royal monopolies, and tax gatherers working on commission wasn’t replaced by a universal tax system untill the nineteenth century.
At times, both money and “stuff” were used. In Scotland, IIRC, tax payments were called mail. If you payed with actual coins, it was called white mail. If you payed with grain, chickens, or whateverhaveyou, it was called black mail. Just like the IRS, the Scottish tax guys liked to throw their weight around, so that’s why blackmail now refers to extorion :).
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Lumpy/Diceman: Thank you both… now I have some more specific questions.
Diceman: Any idea on the rough percentage of taxes that were payed in white mail vs. black mail?
Also, were taxes a set sum (i.e. two silver coins or 5 bushels of grain) or some percentage of what you had (i.e. you have 200 bushels of grain, we’ll take 10% of that thanks)?
In England (the country for which I have information), the typical “lay subsidy” was a combination of income tax and property tax, to use modern terminology. In the countryside, yeoman farmers and gentry would pay according to the produce of their farms or demenses (“the ninth lamb, sheaf, and fleece”). In the towns, the bourgeoisie would pay (usually) the same percentage of their property. Of course, medieval assessments were always gross underestimates of the reality, so that the Exchequer would never collect the specified percentage.
*A ninth was typical, although not universal. Eventually, the assessment was abstracted so that “a ninth” always brought in about £36,000.
*At the same that parliament made its grant of supply, convocation (the church council) would meet and, at least nominally, provide the same amount. It shoulld be noted, however, that these were not taxes in the modern sense. Each grant of supply was made separately by parliament and convocation, the authority to collect it expired with its collection, and the king could never be sure of getting it (one way was to listen to what the commons and lords had to say, graciously accept their petitions, and implement them; thus, the origins of the Parliamentary Act)
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