From: jamesd@echeque.com
Date: Tue, 7 May 1996 04:33:40 +0800
To: Sandy Sandfort <alanh@infi.net>
Subject: Re: Why I Pay Too Much in Taxes
Message-ID: <199605061419.HAA02540@dns2.noc.best.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 11:16 PM 5/5/96 -0700, Sandy Sandfort wrote:
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>                          SANDY SANDFORT
> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
>
>C'punks,
>
>On Sun, 5 May 1996, Alan Horowitz wrote:
>
>> didn't the feudal vassels only pay 33% ?
>
>Actually, no.  When I used to edit a magazine, I commissioned an
>article about how much "tax" slaves, serfs, etc. paid.  That is,
>how much of what they produced, did they get to keep; how much
>went to their masters.  The surprising, cross-cultural answer my
>researcher/writer found was that they got to keep everthing they
>produced except 5-10%.  That's a lot better, percentage-wise,
>than for modern "tax slaves."


In the early feudal period, ordinary knights did not live well.  
They were only moderately better off than peasants, and yet to support one 
knight, you needed a startlingly large number of peasants, a fact
that kings were continually unhappy about and continually trying
to fix.

While it is difficult to assess the tax rate, because taxes were
in kind, it was clearly very low by modern standards.
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