Subventio generalis
The subventio generalis (or "general aid"), also known as collecta, was a direct tax in the medieval Kingdom of Sicily.
Origins
[edit]The subventio generalis had its origins in the obligation of the holders of fiefs in the Kingdom of Sicily to provide military service to the monarchs.[1][2] They were required to serve in the royal army without compensation for maximum 90 days for each 20 ounces of their annual income.[1] They could get rid of this irksome duty, if they pay a special fee, known as adohamentum or adoha.[3] Most barons and counts preferred to pay the fee which thus developed into a tax already under the Norman kings of Sicily.[3] The landowners collected the fee from their tenants, thus in practice the peasants were to pay the adoha.[3] Those who lived in the royal demesne—all burghers and the majority of the peasantry—were subjected to levies in money or in kind, known as collecta.[1] The monarchs could in theory freely demand such levies, only their fear of riots limited their greed.[1]
The Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, who was also king of Sicily, summoned the host in each year after 1231.[3] This practice enabled him to annually collect the adoha, transforming it into a regular tax.[3] The adoha and the collecta were not differentiated from 1238 and they were united three years later.[3]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Percy 1981, p. 70.
- ^ Sakellariou 2011, p. 90.
- ^ a b c d e f Percy 1981, p. 71.
Sources
[edit]- Percy, William A. (1981). "The Earliest Revolution Against the "Modern State": Direct Taxation in Medieval Sicily and the Vespers". Italian Quarterly. XXII (84): 69–83. ISSN 0021-2954.
- Sakellariou, Eleni (2011). Southern Italy in the Late Middle Ages: Demographic, Institutional and Economic Change in the Kingdom of Naples, c.1440-c.1530. BRILL. ISBN 9789004224063.
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