ABSTRACT
Changes in land distribution are a key factor to understanding the evolution of inequality in preindustrial economies. Upper social classes such as aristocrats and ecclesiastical authorities have traditionally maintained their privileged positions thanks to the tight control that they achieved on the property of land. Areas with high levels of land inequality created societies with large pools of inhabitants that either had to rent land or had to rely on their own activity as workers to secure their incomes. Authors such as Engerman and Sokoloff (2002) have argued that societies with low levels of inequality were vital to the establishment of efficient economic institutions that would promote economic growth. By contrast, they argue that those economic systems where high levels of inequality prevailed were negative for economic development because upper classes produced institutional frameworks that maintained their privileges.
