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From: janw@inmet.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: Rent-a-Cop
Message-ID: <28200419@inmet.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 21-Dec-85 01:43:00 EST
Article-I.D.: inmet.28200419
Posted: Sat Dec 21 01:43:00 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 23-Dec-85 05:46:07 EST
References: <883@mmintl.UUCP>
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Nf-From: inmet!janw    Dec 21 01:43:00 1985


[Frank Adams ihpn4!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!franka]
>Organized crime is a feudal power structure.  The formula for
>computing taxes in a feudal government is (your tax) = (your wealth) minus
>(the minimum you need to live on).

No, this is not true of feudalism at all. Through the Middle Ages,
the amount a serf or a vassal owed his liege was supposed  to  be
*fixed* once and for all, from times immemorial. In practice, hu-
man memory being short, it changed quite a lot, but it changed by
*precedent*,  not through arbitrary imposition. E.g., a king asks
a nearby monastery to send him, as a favor, so  many  barrels  of
their  special  wine,  for  an emergency feast. If the abbot com-
plies, next year the same amount may be requested as a  customary
tribute.  

This is quite different, however, from peremptory  raising  of
tribute, in *violation* of custom. That might lead to dire conse-
quences for the extortioner: starting from appeal  to  *his*
suzerain - to armed resistance, not just by the offended vassal,
but all the other vassals - to change of allegiance. Don't forget
that  the  armed force of the suzerain was that of his vassals;
also that there was a lot of competition in  the  suzerain  busi-
ness.  Feudal society was pluralist. (Also violent, cruel and su-
perstitious - I am not trying to idealize  it.  But  it  was  the
greatest political laboratory that ever existed).

Applying Frank's tax formula (above) became possible much  later,
under an *absolutist state* : in France, starting with Richelieu.
Then, inventing new taxes became an industry much in  demand.  By
the end of Louis XIV rule, it crushed the peasants to a condition
where they looked, to a fresh observer, hardly  human.  Bourgeois
revolutions  provided  a redress, by establishing a cheap govern-
ment, limiting taxation, and separating economic  from  political
power.

Now we observe a gradual erosion of these achievements.

		Jan Wasilewsky