Abstract

The article aims at showing the consequences of the joint liability tax system of early modern Europe. Established as a tool to guarantee payments, with the estimi of 16th century, the 17th century crisis led to the insolvency of the fiscal units of the system, i.e. the communities. From this crisis, the four fundamental pillars at the basis of the subsequent evolution of the modern state arose: the construction of effective tools for getting paid; the local indebtedness and its securitization; the fragmentation of the territory into a series of responsible units and groups that were formed to manage taxation (cassine, mills, taverns, paper crowds, massari); a new type of demography, leading to the phenomenon of lost villages. The article focuses, in particular, on these last two structures, tracing the origin of the Wüstungen to fiscal crises; and studying the plurality of the European settlements as an effect of the crisis of responsibility.