From privatized to government-administered tax collection

Tax farming in eighteenth-century France1

Bibliographic Data

ID3368950
AuthorsEugene N White (0000-0001-6213-8003, National Bureau of Economic Research, corresponding author)
Year2004
Volume57
Issue4
Pages636-663
Publication date2004-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Economic History Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-0117 • E-ISSN: 1468-0289
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1468-0289.2004.00291.x
OpenAlexW3125713107
LanguageEN
Citations received19
References cited27

The establishment of a government bureaucracy to collect taxes is regarded as one of the essential features of a modern economy. While Britain is considered a pioneer, France has been treated as a laggard because of continued reliance on tax farming. Focusing on the largest tax farm, France's late transition from private to government tax collection is explained in a principal-agent context by the difficulties of monitoring employees and borrowing at low cost in the capital market. Tax farmers continued to earn high returns, absorbing the risk of fluctuating collections, leaving the Crown with lower revenue

Agriculture · Bureaucracy · Business · Capital (architecture) · Context (archaeology) · Economic policy · Economics · Economy · Geography · Government (linguistics) · Indirect tax · Market economy · Political science · Politics · Public economics · Revenue · Tax reform · Tax revenue · Finance · Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Law · Local Government Finance and Decentralization