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Tax Collection without Consent

This chapter examines tax collection in pre-modern Romanian provinces. Similar to the other case studies in this volume, legitimacy, the balance of powers, and administrative capacity influence greatly the fiscal and state-building process. Romanian rulers did not seek popular consent, nor did they actively engage in any form of social contract. Taxes were predominantly a burden imposed on behalf of neighboring foreign powers, or exploitative noblemen. Public goods and services were often provided by the Church. This chapter also explains some of the differences between the historical provinces. In the semi-periphery of the Ottoman Empire, fiscal collection was not a priority for the impoverished population, but rather the responsibility of patrimonial rulers. In contrast, social norms and institutional context encouraged fiscal compliance in the urban areas of Transylvania, where a nascent bureaucratic system provided the benefits of predictability and rule enforcement for tradesmen and guild workers.