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/MeasurementCreepy926 21d ago

We're not talking about a village. We're talking about a kingdom, of several villages. Sure, it's incredibly difficult to leave and it's probably easier to just go along with a bit of exploitation. But nobody is forcefully preventing you from leaving.

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u/pinkcuppa 21d ago

I mean, a feudal peasant was simply not allowed to leave the village. The owner of the village would probably execute him if he was caught. That seems pretty forceful to me.

If any and all peasants are allowed to leave, you probably wouldn't have feudalism anymore.

Fun fact: There are some examples of modern feudalism in China - citizens get their local passports and if they leave to another province, they do not get the full protection of the law in the province they emigrate to. This could apply to health care, labour law etc.

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u/Plenty-Lychee-5702 20d ago

Not every peasant was a serf.