New research uses regional per capita tax burdens in 1780s France to examine the relationship between tax burdens and rioting. It finds that
bailliages (administrative districts) with heavier tax burdens experienced significantly more riots between 1750 and 1789.
This association
stemmed primarily from taxes on goods rather than on income or profits.… Taxation created the structural foundations for unrest, while material hardship and ideological forces catalyzed long-standing grievances about fiscal inequality into open revolt.
Also,
legislators from high-tax constituencies were more likely to demand institutional change, call for the abolition of feudal privileges, … support abolishing the monarchy[,] and … vote for the king’s execution during the National Convention in January 1793.
Oppressive taxation is unpopular, and it can harm the rule of law.
Cross-posted from Substack.
