Chapter 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?

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, colonizatio...

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Main Author: Van Bavel, Bas
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: Firenze University Press 2022
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Online Access:ONIX_20220601_9788855180535_219
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author Van Bavel, Bas
author_browse Van Bavel, Bas
author_facet Van Bavel, Bas
author_sort Van Bavel, Bas
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description 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.
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institution Directory of Open Access Books
language eng
publishDate 2022
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publisherStr Firenze University Press
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-820362022-06-02T04:02:44Z Chapter 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? Van Bavel, Bas Economic inequality economic history European economic history pre-industrial age 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. 2022-06-02T04:02:42Z 2022-06-02T04:02:42Z 2022-06-01T12:11:49Z 2020 chapter ONIX_20220601_9788855180535_219 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/56036 9788855180535 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/82036 eng Datini Studies in Economic History open access image/jpeg Attribution 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/56036/1/14225.pdf Firenze University Press 10.36253/978-88-5518-053-5.27 10.36253/978-88-5518-053-5.27 2ec4474d-93b1-4cfa-b313-9c6019b51b1a 9788855180535 26 Florence open access
spellingShingle Economic inequality
economic history
European economic history
pre-industrial age
Van Bavel, Bas
Chapter 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?
title Chapter 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?
title_full Chapter 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?
title_fullStr Chapter 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?
title_full_unstemmed Chapter 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?
title_short Chapter 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?
title_sort chapter 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
topic Economic inequality
economic history
European economic history
pre-industrial age
topic_facet Economic inequality
economic history
European economic history
pre-industrial age
url ONIX_20220601_9788855180535_219
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