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From: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: Rent-a-Cop
Message-ID: <953@mmintl.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 27-Dec-85 06:51:30 EST
Article-I.D.: mmintl.953
Posted: Fri Dec 27 06:51:30 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 30-Dec-85 06:45:30 EST
References: <883@mmintl.UUCP> <28200419@inmet.UUCP>
Reply-To: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Organization: Multimate International, E. Hartford, CT
Lines: 32

In article <28200419@inmet.UUCP> janw@inmet.UUCP writes:
>[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 was the theory.  The practice was that the amount a serf owed his
liege was so large that the relationship (maximum harvest) - (your tax) <
(the minimum you need to live on) held.  The serf would (illegally) withhold
part of the harvest, to give his family enough to live on.  In general,
there was no effective way to withhold more than this amount, because the
serf could not sell the excess.

If some method were found to increase the harvest above this point, a new
tradition would be created.  Since there was no incentive to increase the
harvest, this happened rarely.

Your example with the abbott is not a very good one; the abbott was part of
the ruling class.

Frank Adams                           ihpn4!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!franka
Multimate International    52 Oakland Ave North    E. Hartford, CT 06108