ABSTRACT
An item that appeared regularly on the public budgets in the ancien régimeboth of the community and of the state-was under “exceptional circumstances,” mainly concerning expenditure, which prompted the need to nd fresh sources of revenue (Ginatempo 2001). is is what makes it dicult not so much to list items of expenditure as to quantify them and dene their specic import. One heavy expense, both in times of war and of peace, was certainly that incurred in billeting military personnel and in taxation (Knapton 1982, 1986; Rizzo 2008; Colombo 2008). e rst aected municipal budgets considerably owing to the system of compulsory contributions imposed on rural communities. e eect of taxation, instead, was more indirect-though, from a theoretical point of view, taxes, particularly the ordinary kind, should not have weighed heavily on community budgets, as they were compensated for because considered by the Fiscal Chamber as taxable income (expenditure) from the sums of money collected from the inhabitants (income). However, in practice taxes oen aected the result of the annual prot and loss account, especially on account of the system of local tax collection. We will come back shortly to these two issues, crucial in understanding the action and the spending power of the municipalities in the governance of the place. Before we do so it is necessary to attempt to establish the quality and quantity of ordinary expenditure.
