This paper scrutinizes the insights won by recent studies in wealth inequality in pre-industrial Europe. It focuses on the regions and periods where levels of inequality were relatively low, trying to arrive at an inventory of causes of these exceptions. It discusses catastrophic events, colonization and revolution as possible causes, but argues that these only occasionally had a leveling effect, depending on the social and institutional context in which they occurred. Most clearly wealth accumulation was restricted, even by maximums on ownership, where associative organizations held a solid position, and market and state played lesser roles as coordination systems.
Utrecht University, Netherlands - ORCID: 0000-0001-8686-0279
Titolo del capitolo
Looking for the islands of equality in a sea of inequality. Why did some societies in pre-industrial Europe have relatively low levels of wealth inequality?
Autori
Bas Van Bavel
Lingua
English
DOI
10.36253/978-88-5518-053-5.27
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Anno di pubblicazione
2020
Copyright
© 2020 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Titolo del libro
Disuguaglianza economica nelle società preindustriali: cause ed effetti / Economic inequality in pre-industrial societies: causes and effect
Curatori
Giampiero Nigro
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Numero di pagine
488
Anno di pubblicazione
2020
Copyright
© 2020 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Editore
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/978-88-5518-053-5
ISBN Print
978-88-5518-052-8
eISBN (pdf)
978-88-5518-053-5
eISBN (xml)
978-88-5518-054-2
Collana
Datini Studies in Economic History
ISSN della collana
2975-1241
e-ISSN della collana
2975-1195