Kommunaler und kollektiver Widerstand gegen fiskalische Abschöpfung in der alten Eidgenossenschaft (Schweiz vor 1800)

Abstract

Abstract Whenever there was a conflict about taxes in the Old Swiss Confederacy, it was about participation in collective resources in general, or about the question of who had to contribute to the commonwealth and to what extent, and who was allowed to benefit from it. In this debate the idea of a fair redistribution of goods among the full members of a political and economic community played a decisive role. Moreover, a tightening of the tax regime was never enforced unilaterally from above. Rather, newly demanded taxes were either withdrawn afterwards or at least offset by symbolic compensation. Given its tasks, the state had tobe organized as cheaply as possible. This is why spending restraint was given at least as much importance as fighting taxes. Tax conflicts were conservative and not revolutionary in character. The protesters did not aim to fundamentally reorganize the system but, with reference to the old tradition and old freedoms, only wanted to abolish the grievances that were perceived to be becoming increasingly worse. The current conditions were merely tobe rearranged according to the model of the idealized ancestral community.