Wealth inequality and epidemics in the Republic of Venice (1400–1800)

Abstract

This article analyses wealth inequality in the Republic of Venice during 1400–1800. The availability of a large database of homogeneous inequality measurements allows us to produce the most in-depth study of the factors affecting inequality at the local level available thus far for any preindustrial society. Additionally, the occurrence of a major plague during 1629–30, an event that caused the death of 40 per cent of the inhabitants of the area, allows us to contribute to the growing literature on the distributional consequences of epidemics. Across our dataset, of the three factors that recent literature has discussed as possibly able to explain overall inequality trends in the long run – economic development, population, and regressive taxation – regressive taxation set by the central state had a relatively strong impact. We also find that locally, differences in inequality levels were determined by closeness to the capital city of Venice, altitude, and suitability of land to specific crops. Regarding the impact of the plague, we demonstrate that whilst the 1630 plague was different from the medieval Black Death as it did not lead to large-scale and enduring levelling, it did cause a structural break in the way in which some key variables affected inequality.