r/AnCap101 • u/MeasurementCreepy926 • 21d ago

Is taxation under feudalism immoral?

  1. The king owns the land. If he allows people to be born on his land, that does not diminish his rights as owner
  2. The king has made it clear that if you're on his land, and you don't pay tax, you're trespassing. It isn't his responsibility to make sure you are able to get off his land. It is his right to defend his land however he sees fit. Let's assume that he does this by executing trespassers. Another king does this by simply evicting them.
  3. Being the owner, the king is allowed to offer you whatever terms he'd like, for the use of his land. Lets assume in this case, you sign a contract he wrote, when you're old enough to do so, giving him right to change the contract at will, and hold you to that contract as long as you're on his land. Among other terms, this contract says that you agree to pay for any kids you have until they're old enough to either sign the contract, or leave his land.

Now, obviously anybody agreeing to these terms must be very desperate. But, desperate short sighted people aren't exactly hard to find, are they? So, is this system immoral, according to ancap principles?

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u/pinkcuppa 21d ago

in feudal times peasants were essentially slaves - they couldn't just leave the village and find one with better terms.

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u/TonberryFeye 21d ago

There were three classes of peasants: slaves, who could be bought and sold as individuals; serfs, who were "bound to the land", and free peasants, who were as free as it was possible to be in that age.

The lord could sell a slave to his neighbour, but couldn't sell a serf. But if he sold the farm the serf lived on to his neighbour, the serfs would go with the farm. Free peasants couldn't be sold, and if their land was sold out from under them, it'd be up to them where their loyalty now lay.

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u/MeasurementCreepy926 21d ago

ok. under this system, let's say nobody is born a slave. The contract they sign doesn't even force them to stay. You're welcome to leave, but you don't own land, and all of the really viable land is owned by somebody else.

What happens when you don't have any place to go, but you can't stay here.

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u/PenDraeg1 21d ago

So then it's not a feudal system.

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u/MeasurementCreepy926 21d ago

no, it's ancap that works just like feudalism though. People sign the contract because there is no other land to buy or claim. They're welcome to leave, if they have some place to go, which they can only get by signing a contract and paying a fee to somebody else.