The development of wealth inequality in the German territories of the Holy Roman Empire, 1300-1850

Thesis

This dissertation investigates the development and causes of economic inequality in pre-industrial Germany from 1300 to 1850. To do so, it presents two novel datasets. The first is the largest pre-industrial household-level dataset of wealth taxation covering more than 35 urban and over 100 rural communities, comprising more than 100,000 observations. The second is a city-level dataset of more than 30 city budgets. These novel datasets reveal that wealth inequality in pre- industrial Germany moved in four phases: a decline in wealth inequality after the Black Death in 1347-1352, a rise in inequality from circa 1450 onwards, peaking at the eve of the Thirty Years’ War in 1618 during and after which it declined until 1700 when it started rising again. This development in wealth inequality distinguishes Germany from other European regions where inequality rose steadily throughout the early modern period. It highlights the extraordinarily destructive impact of the Thirty Years’ War. It further provides the first consistent poverty estimates for the period from 1300 to 1800. It shows that poverty and inequality largely developed in tandem except for the period of Thirty Years’ War when poverty rates peaked. Poverty rose particularly dramatically in rural communities where the destructive effect of the War was most pronounced. This dissertation also investigates fiscal extraction as one of the possible drivers of inequality and poverty. It provides the first comparative estimates of per capita fiscal pressure for a large number of German cities. It shows that throughout the late Middle Ages fiscal pressure was low and stable, but from the mid-sixteenth century onwards it started to rise and reached its maximum right before and during the Thirty Years’ War. These levels are high even compared to the level of fiscal extraction in other fiscally-advanced European regions, including England, the Netherlands and France. This finding might explain the particularly steep rise of inequality just before the onset of the Thirty Years’ War. In sum, by making use of originally compiled data, this dissertation reveals the economic consequences of the Black Death, the Thirty Years’ War and fiscal extraction to advance our understanding of inequality and poverty in pre-industrial Germany.

Authors: Gierok, V

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-eqggozzz8
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: pre-industrial; Germany; Holy Roman Empire; taxation; wealth; inequality; fiscal capacity
• Subjects: Economic history