英検1級に出そうな単語-How Were Medieval Taxes Collected?
今回は、昔はどう税金を集めていたかのお話です。
日本でも大変ですが、
もっと広い国は、集めるのも一苦労です。
こうゆうことは教科書にはないけど、疑問ですね。
動画自体は約3分で短めです。
"bureaucratic;官僚の"→"bureaucrat;官僚"
"sophistication;洗練"→"sophisticate;洗練させる"
"centralization;中央集権"
"span;広がる、及ぶ"
"peasant;農民"→"peasantry;小作農"
"brunt;矛先、大部分"→"bear the brunt of;矢面に立つ"
"teller;窓口係、話し手"
"productivity;生産力、生産性"
"inventory;在庫、目録"
"hand over;引き渡す、譲渡する"
"clergy;聖職者"
" hilt;剣の柄"→" to the hilt;徹底的に"
"destabilize;動揺させる、不安定にする"→"stabilize;安定させる"
"levy;徴収する、課する、招集する"
"egregious;ひどい"
"seizure;つかむこと、差し押さえ、没収"→"seize;捕まえる"
"legally;法律上、合法的に"
"revenue;収入"
"purview;範囲、権限"
"assess;評価する、査定する"→"asset;財産、資産、利点"
全文
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nowadays when you pay your taxes it's
00:01
done in several ways either you get a
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bill at the end of the tax year or it
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comes out of your paycheck before you
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even see it
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of course this level of bureaucratic
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sophistication didn't exist during the
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medieval period which raises the
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question how were medieval taxes
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actually collected how did a ruler
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extract taxes from their subjects and
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what sort of things were subject to tax
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well across Europe many states at
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varying levels of centralization which
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affected how taxes were collected one
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state which spanned thousands of miles
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and also the entire medieval period was
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the eastern Roman Empire often called
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the Byzantine Empire and the Bumble
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focus on this is because it was a well
00:35
developed state with both a large urban
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and rural population so how were these
00:39
taxes actually collected well to
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everyone surprised the people who bore
00:42
the brunt of taxation with the peasantry
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and there were two major forms of
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taxation in the Byzantine Empire the
00:48
first was rent which a peasant paid to
00:50
their local Lord in return for the right
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to use land and the second was the
00:54
teller men on the household tax which
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was paid to the central government rent
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was based upon the value and
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productivity of the land in question and
01:00
for the most part was determined by the
01:02
Lord the household tax was determined by
01:04
central tax collectors who would travel
01:05
across the Empire and take inventory of
01:07
who had what the tax collectors would
01:09
then leave and come back soon after to
01:11
collect the demanded taxes and the
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responsibility lay with the Lord to make
01:14
sure it was paid but if the tax
01:15
collectors and the Lord would then make
01:17
a note of how much was paid and who paid
01:18
it to make sure the taxes weren't
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collected twice and off they go
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now there were three ways in which
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peasants could pay their taxes
01:24
the first was simply in coin the second
01:27
was in kind like handing over the
01:28
equivalent value of their produce and
01:30
the third was via unpaid labor and this
01:32
was used for things like the
01:33
construction of public roads or churches
01:35
in case you're wondering the nobility
01:36
and the clergy were given what were
01:38
called privileges which reduced their
01:39
tax burden all of this makes it sound
01:41
like the Byzantine Empire was simply
01:43
able to tax the peasantry up to the hilt
01:45
but they did have protections the
01:47
government knew that an unhappy
01:48
unproductive peasantry would destabilize
01:50
the Empire which is why there were
01:51
limitations on how much they could be
01:53
taxed in regular peacetime that said in
01:55
times of war and war was quite common
01:57
special taxes could be levied the most
01:59
egregious of these were the farm levy an
02:00
extra tax on farm land and the seizure
02:02
of church property mostly its gold
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reserves and this was a right in which
02:06
all Byzantine emperors held because
02:07
legally the entire Empire was their
02:09
personal property and everyone else only
02:10
held it with their permission it wasn't
02:12
just a peasantry
02:13
was subject to taxation another major
02:15
revenue stream for the Empire was
02:17
taxation or merchants in their trade
02:18
unlike the taxation of the peasantry
02:20
local Nobles weren't included and it was
02:22
the sole purview of the central
02:23
government and so to summarize that's
02:25
how the Byzantine government would
02:27
collect its taxes via state pay
02:29
bureaucrats who traveled the Empire to
02:30
assess land valleys and levy attacks
02:32
accordingly the Lords of the peasantry
02:34
in question would then be required to
02:35
collect the taxes and paid the next time
02:37
that the collectors were about what's
02:38
the level of Taxation vary depending on
02:40
trade location and era one thing was
02:42
consistent nobody liked paying them I
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hope you enjoyed this episode and thank
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you for watching with the special thanks
02:48
to my patreon supporters who you can see
02:50
on screen here and with an extra special
02:51
thanks to James Bissonnette David
02:53
archaeologist party-boy Co Danny Maloney
02:56
Colin Castleman Rob Waterhouse are in
02:58
the white Michael Reynolds archway an
03:01
emperor chris wicker Gustav Swan Gareth
03:03
Turner spinning three plates David
03:06
Silverman Winston Cawood Maggie packs
03:08
Kowski Christian check' Anthony Beckett
03:10
Robert Wetzel Skye Chappell and Ike
