Taxes, Lawyers, and the Decline of Witch Trials in France

Abstract

This paper explores the rise of the fiscal state in the early modern period and its impact on legal capacity. To measure legal capacity, we establish that witchcraft trials were more likely to take place where the central state had weak legal institutions. Combining data on the geographic distribution of witchcraft trials with unique panel data on tax receipts across 21 French regions, we find that the rise of the tax state can account for much of the decline in witch trials during this period. Further historical evidence supports our hypothesis that higher taxes led to better legal institutions.

Witch Trials

“…Using data on witch trials in France between 1550 and 1700, Johnson and Koyama () examine this hypothesis and find support for it. To proxy governmental strength, they measure fiscal capacity: tax revenues per capita .…”

“…When and where central government was weaker, hence less able to enforce the rule of law, there was therefore more intense witch-trial activity, and vice versa. 31 Using data on witch trials in France between 1550 and 1700, Johnson and Koyama (2014) examine this hypothesis and find support for it. To proxy governmental strength, they measure fiscal capacity: tax revenues per capita.…”

Plague, Politics, and Pogroms: The Black Death, the Rule of Law, and the Persecution of Jews in the Holy Roman Empire

“…Recent historical work has shown that most European polities lacked 'minimally effective states' until the early modern period (Epstein, 2000;North et al, 2009;Dincecco, 2009Dincecco, , 2010Grafe, 2012;Johnson and Koyama, 2014a;Hough and Grier, 2015). 4 Building on these insights, Johnson and Koyama (2014b) provide evidence that legal fragmentation in seventeenth century France was associated with more intense witch-trials and that a process of legal centralization was required to control the use of torture and curtain the panic over witchcraft. In contrast to the arguments in favor of a polycentric political order, these arguments suggest that political centralization may be crucial to the emergence of the rule of law.…”

Jewish Persecutions and Weather Shocks: 1100–1800

“…163-6). 5 For example, Glaeser (2005) studies the incentives politicians have to incite hatred against particular groups; Mitra and Ray (2013) provides a theory of ethnic conflict and applies it to Hindu-Muslim violence in India; Johnson and Koyama (2014b) examine the relationship between the rise of the French state and the decline in trials for witchcraft; Vidal-Robert (2013) studies what factors were associated with more trials by the Spanish Inquisition; and Acemoglu et al (2011) estimate the economic costs of the Holocaust in Russia. specialisation, despite making Jews especially valuable to medieval rulers, ultimately placed Jewish communities in a political equilibrium in which they were vulnerable to persecution and expulsion.…”