The late-medieval crisis quantified

Abstract

The article aims to assess the size of secular taxes in medieval Sweden in real terms. The size of taxes is calculated as the quantity of butter and the number of oxen that could be bought for a given tax sum. In addition, nominal taxes are converted into grams of silver. Three distinctive periods are discerned: (1) a phase of low taxes 1320–1363; (2) a period of very high taxes from 1363 up to the Engelbrekt uprising in 1434; and (3) a new phase of low taxes up to the mid-16th century. A study of taxes at the regional and national levels makes it possible to evaluate the weight of the main regions of the kingdom (including Finland) in the central fiscal system at the end of the medieval era. A national overview of the situation around 1530 is put forward. During the period of high fiscal pressure in Sweden in the decades around 1400, taxes per taxpayer were much higher than those of England. In the low-tax periods, on the other hand, taxes were insufficient to create a working monopoly of violence. The result was drawn-out conflict between warlords for a large part of the 15th century and well into the 16th century.