Social History and Taxes; The Case of Early Modern France

Abstract

"Apart from a flurry of interest in tax revolts ten years ago, social historians of early modern Europe have by and large ignored taxation. Their neglect is perhaps understandable, given that social history itself arose as a revolt against traditional political history and all that it entailed, including the operations of the fisc. The fact that details of early modern fiscal systems often lie interred in tedious administrative histories or that many political historians themselves seem to overlook matters of interest to social historians of course only compounds the problem. Yet while the neglect social historians have shown early modern taxation is perhaps understandable, it is nonetheless unfortunate. Indeed, it is even inexcusable. Taxation obviously had a drastic effect on the common people of early modern Europe, an effect that went far beyond the seizure of hard earned coins from their pockets."