Between 500 and 1500, the economy of Europe changed considerably. The papal court saw an equally radical change in the nature of their income, their expenditure, their administration, and their financial expectations. The papal court became the jurisdictional apex of the medieval Church and a major power in European secular politics. Consequently, the income of the Roman Curia increased radically, as did their expenditure. The papacy was a religious power first and foremost. Therefore, the accounting, income, and expenditure of the popes had to correspond to a model medieval Christianity thought good; the pope should look after his flock and spend appropriately on their welfare. There were times, however, when it was not clear to the Christian world that the pope was acting in an acceptable manner, as regards finance and wealth. Bitter satires followed, and the papacy gained a reputation for extravagance. It has never fully thrown off that reputation.

Chapter 6 turns to the attack on the Whig view of the state, and especially to the rejection of the Whig contention that no arbitrary or despotic power is any longer being exercised. The chapter focuses on two major challenges to this complacency. One line of criticism pointed out that, with the creation and rapid growth of the national debt, enormous sums were now being paid directly to the crown, thereby bringing an obvious danger of despotism. The second and epoch- making challenge came from the American colonies. When the British government resolved in 1764 to tax them directly, the colonists denounced this innovation as an obvious act of despotism. They argued that, because they had no representation in the British Parliament, they had no means of expressing or withholding their consent. They were thus being subjected to a wholly arbitrary form of power, and were consequently being treated as slaves. The chapter traces the development of this patriot case in the writings of Otis, Hopkins, Dulany, Dickinson, Jefferson and other colonists, and concludes with the defence of the patriot cause by Price and Paine and the publication of the Declaration of Independence.

Cities and prosperity are what the state has been made for. Taxation is its main principle, as it piles up resources and encourages, through coercion, intensified working and gains in productivity.

By the end of the second century, although a backwater of the Empire, Britain had become a Romanized province. However, the whole Empire had also begun to alter in character and in the following century change accelerated and became more evident to contemporaries. As these processes intensified they were perceived as a crisis: the hitherto stable world was transformed rapidly and unpredictably, as the Golden Age of the second century was replaced by the anarchy of the third. The character of much of the archaeological evidence also develops into the pattern characteristic of the later Empire, although it is far from clear precisely how these alterations relate to those referred to in the historical sources. In this chapter the historical processes are outlined first to provide the background. The archaeological evidence is then discussed in relation to the historical changes defined.

This contribution surveys the essays in political economy that Hume began to publish in 1752, with particular attention to his thinking about money. The essays are presented as, in part, extensions of the natural history of property and government that Hume began to sketch in A Treatise of Human Nature. But they were also carefully calibrated interventions in the political discourse of trade and finance prominent in British politics since the seventeenth century. Hume’s political economy can be situated in a range of British and European intellectual and political contexts. This chapter pays particular attention to his recurrent engagement with John Locke’s extensive writings on money, trade and taxation, which served Hume as a foil in developing his own positions. There is, it will be suggested, a deep connection between Hume’s celebrated critique of Locke’s account of the original contract and his rejection of Locke’s search for an invariable monetary standard.

What does Chinese law have to say about people who are involved in sex work and the places where it occurs? Prostitution control is a universal problem for which states have adopted a variety of policies to address the public order, public health, and commercial challenges that it presents. This chapter describes that range of regulatory possibilities. It then explains the official choices that China has made, through discussions of the policing, health, and taxation rules and institutions that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has adopted to regulate prostitution.

This chapter explores questions of obligatory charity (zakāt) in the legal miscellany-work, Jāmiʿ al-Shatāt, of the female Iranian jurist Nuṣrat Amīn (d. 1403/1983). The author’s remarkable career and the esteem she enjoyed among fellow (male) jurists are discussed, along with the nature of her legal authority. The passage excerpted in this chapter is representative of the character of the book in question: it examines the proofs of the rules of law (fiqh), typically first presenting previous opinions on a given question or topic, then evaluating the reasons, explanations, rules or rationales (dalīl or aṣl) for each of these opinions in respect to the primary sources.

The chapter examines the role of forced displacement in increasing the demand for state intervention and expanding the size of the state bureaucracy in West Germany. It discusses the government elites’ strategies for dealing with the needs of expellees and receiving communities and reviews expellees’ ability to influence government policy. Statistical analysis is used to demonstrate that counties with a greater proportion of expellees to population had more civil servants per capita.

The chapter examines how the size and diversity of the migrant population shaped economic outcomes in western Poland using statistical analysis. It shows that when state institutions were extractive, the composition of the migrant population played no role in shaping economic performance. Once institutions became more inclusive, however, municipalities settled by more regionally diverse populations registered higher incomes and entrepreneurship rates. The chapter then rules out a series of alternative explanations for these findings.

This chapter examines the reception of expellees in West Germany. I show that expellees were perceived as foreigners, despite sharing ethnicity and language with the locals. I then document expellees’ exclusion from local voluntary associations and the formation of new associations based on migration status and region of origin. I conclude by analyzing contributions to public goods provision in Bavarian municipalities. I show that the more expellees a given community received, the lower the rates at which it taxed the locals’ property and business.

This chapter discusses a treatise written by the Zaydī Imam al-Mutawakkil Bi-llāh Aḥmad b. Sulaymān (r. 532-566/1137-1170) or his judge Jaʿfar b. Aḥmad b. Abī Yaḥyā b. ʿAbd al-Salām (d. 573/1177-8) defending the Imam’s conduct on a range of issues which had attracted the vocal criticism of his opponents, particular the group known as the Muṭarrifiyya. Firstly, the treatise seeks to justify hiring ‘immoral’ military forces in a just war; in this case, non-Zaydī, nominally Ismāʿīlī or Sunnī, tribal forces, against fellow Zaydīs. Secondly, the treatise seeks to justify the use of violence as means to collect the maʿūna, a type of religiously justifiable war contribution tax. Relying on non-Zaydī mercenaries against his own Zaydī subjects, and seizing the war tax by force, engendered profound disagreement, sparking off criticism that required a comprehensive response.

Ezra–Nehemiah presents multiple theological themes in accord with the complex experiences of repatriation. This chapter is divided under several subheadings, such as trauma, power, identity, hope, prayer, and others, as accessible topical introductions to the theological contributions of Ezra–Nehemiah.

Was war intense and frequent enough in Latin America to cause state formation? How should we evaluate the capability of these states in the nineteenth century? This chapter presents a background of how war formed the colonial state in Latin America and features some cross-regional comparisons between Europe and Latin America which give context to the rest of the book. After showing how warfare in Europe and in the Americas led to the institutionalization of the colonial state, I focus on entire century between the Napoleonic Wars and WWI to show that Latin America faced comparatively frequent and severe warfare during this period. I then show that the territorial effects of warfare were similar in both regions and that the modes of financing war were also comparable and similarly conducive to state building. Put together, these pieces of evidence demonstrate through simple descriptive comparisons that the idea of a relatively peaceful Latin America populated by weak states, although a valid overall characterization of the region in the twentieth century, collapses when our focus is the nineteenth century.

The digital asset landscape is rapidly evolving, despite recent volatility exemplified by the collapse of FTX in 2022. However, the taxation of cryptocurrencies remains a contentious topic, raising questions about how these financial instruments should be taxed. While the IRS has not signaled any immediate changes to the tax code, arguments persist for new tax specifics. This chapter presents the case for integrating fresh tax regulations into the code, catering to both academics and practitioners. Exploring the complexities of taxing cryptocurrencies, it considers factors such as classifying tax liabilities for various digital assets and understanding the implications of crypto transactions on taxable events, and delves into the challenges faced by tax authorities in monitoring decentralized and pseudonymous cryptocurrency transactions. With a focus on bridging theory and practice, the chapter offers practical insights for implementing effective taxation policies for digital assets. It aims to guide policy-makers and taxpayers in navigating the dynamic cryptocurrency landscape. Additionally, it advocates for an updated tax code that aligns with the evolving nature of the digital asset ecosystem. By providing a comprehensive economic rationale, it contributes to ongoing discussions on cryptocurrency taxation, fostering an efficient and equitable tax framework tailored for NFTs and digital assets.