Taxes and the tax system in agriculture of the Byzantine Empire from the III to the IX century

Simonović, Zoran (2024) Taxes and the tax system in agriculture of the Byzantine Empire from the III to the IX century. Ekonomika, 70 (1). pp. 53-63. ISSN 0350-137X

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Abstract

The topic of the paper is tax and the tax system of the Byzantine Empire. The tax system analysed in this paper was created and applied from the 3rd to the 9th century. In this research, the author tried to point out the changes that took place in the property relations in the agriculture of the Empire, which in many ways affected the organization and method of tax collection. The paper provides an analysis from which it can be noted that the organization of tax collection followed the changes that took place in Byzantine society. Agricultural production in the first centuries was based on the relationship between the colonists and the landowners. That relationship began to change from the beginning of the 7th century, when an increasing number of free peasants began to appear in agricultural production. The Roman and then the Byzantine system of tax collection was based on the registration of the land in the cadastre. Every land owner had to be registered in the cadastre, and thus was obliged to pay taxes. The financial administration of the Empire gave estimates every year of how much tax should be collected. The tax system in these times is going through changes in the way it is collected. The old relationship in which head tax and land tax are collected is abandoned and a system of special assessments, household tax and land tax is introduced. The changes that occurred in the method of tax collection influenced the further development of relations in Byzantine agriculture. Throughout this period, taxes were collected in money, mostly gold.

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