IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eecrev/v184y2026ics0014292126000255.html

Castles

Author

Listed:
  • Desierto, Desiree A.
  • Koyama, Mark

Abstract

Castles are an iconic element of how we view medieval Europe. Many of these castles were private — the possession of feudal barons, rather than of a central state. From the conventional perspective, the prevalence of private castles prevented the monopolization of violence and is thus a sign of state weakness. Drawing on the insights of (James 1999), we challenge this state-centric perspective. We model the role of castles in the feudal world, in which political order was not maintained by a state but, rather, a coalition of king and barons who each had their own economic and military resources. The most important resource of the baron was the castle, which rendered his holdings less legible to the king and harder to appropriate, thereby increasing his bargaining power relative to the king. This, then, served as a primary check to the king’s abuses and rendered his promises more credible. Castles, then, did not weaken, but rather strengthened, the feudal king’s rule.

Suggested Citation

  • Desierto, Desiree A. & Koyama, Mark, 2026. "Castles," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:184:y:2026:i:c:s0014292126000255
    DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2026.105281
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014292126000255
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2026.105281?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Johnson, Noel D. & Koyama, Mark, 2017. "States and economic growth: Capacity and constraints," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 1-20.
    2. Desiree A. Desierto & Mark Koyama, 2025. "Feudal political economy," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 80(2), pages 619-658, September.
    3. Blaydes, Lisa & Chaney, Eric, 2013. "The Feudal Revolution and Europe's Rise: Political Divergence of the Christian West and the Muslim World before 1500 CE," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 107(1), pages 16-34, February.
    4. Heldring, Leander & Robinson, James A., 2023. "Problematizing state capacity: the Rwandan case," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(3), pages 401-425, June.
    5. Chiu Yu Ko & Mark Koyama & Tuan†Hwee Sng, 2018. "Unified China And Divided Europe," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 59(1), pages 285-327, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Koyama, Mark & Moriguchi, Chiaki & Sng, Tuan-Hwee, 2018. "Geopolitics and Asia’s little divergence: State building in China and Japan after 1850," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 178-204.
    2. Thomas K. Duncan & Nathan P. Goodman, 2025. "State Capacity of Secret Surveillance," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 51(1), pages 27-49, January.
    3. Chen, Shuo & Fan, Xinyu, 2021. "Warcraft: The legitimacy building of usurpers," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 409-431.
    4. Jiwei Qian & Tuan‐Hwee Sng, 2021. "The state in Chinese economic history," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(3), pages 359-395, November.
    5. Remi Jedwab & Noel D. Johnson & Mark Koyama, 2020. "Medieval Cities Through the Lens of Urban Economic Theories," Working Papers 2020-9, The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy.
    6. Cantoni, Davide & Mohr, Cathrin & Weigand, Matthias, 2019. "The Rise of Fiscal Capacity," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 172, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    7. Jedwab, Remi & Johnson, Noel D. & Koyama, Mark, 2022. "Medieval cities through the lens of urban economics," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    8. Alberto Bisin & Jared Rubin & Avner Seror & Thierry Verdier, 2024. "Culture, institutions and the long divergence," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 1-40, March.
    9. Mark Koyama, 2017. "Jared Rubin: Rulers, religion, and riches: Why the West got rich and the Middle East did not?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 172(3), pages 549-552, September.
    10. Alberto Bisin & Giovanni Federico, 2021. "Merger or Acquisition? Introduction to the Handbook of Historical Economics," NBER Working Papers 28786, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Ruixue Jia & Gérard Roland & Yang Xie, 2021. "A Theory of Power Structure and Institutional Compatibility: China vs. Europe Revisited," NBER Working Papers 28403, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Mark Koyama, 2021. "Hilton L. Root: Network Origins of the Global Economy: East vs. West in a Complex Systems Perspective," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 187(3), pages 533-535, June.
    13. Thilo R. Huning & Fabian Wahl, 2016. "You Reap What You Know: Observability of Soil Quality, and Political Fragmentation," Working Papers 0101, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    14. Jesús Fernández-Villaverde & Mark Koyama & Youhong Lin & Tuan-Hwee Sng, 2023. "The Fractured-Land Hypothesis," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 138(2), pages 1173-1231.
    15. Ma, Debin & Rubin, Jared, 2019. "The Paradox of Power: Principal-agent problems and administrative capacity in Imperial China (and other absolutist regimes)," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 277-294.
    16. Rok Spruk, 2021. "Regional convergence and trade liberalization under weak state capacity: evidence from Mexico," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 18(2), pages 173-216, December.
    17. Yu Hao & Kevin Zhengcheng Liu, 2020. "Taxation, fiscal capacity, and credible commitment in eighteenth‐century China: the effects of the formalization and centralization of informal surtaxes," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 73(4), pages 914-939, November.
    18. Peng Lu & Zhuo Zhang & Chiamaka Henrietta Onyebuchi & Mengdi Li, 2023. "Human civilization dynamics: why we have different civilization patterns in history," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, December.
    19. Leonor Freire Costa & António Henriques & Nuno Palma, 2022. "Anatomy of a Premodern State," Economics Discussion Paper Series 2208, Economics, The University of Manchester, revised May 2024.
    20. Ryan H. Murphy & Colin O’Reilly, 2023. "Freedom through taxation: the effect of fiscal capacity on the rule of law," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 69-90, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • N43 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - Europe: Pre-1913

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:184:y:2026:i:c:s0014292126000255. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eer .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.