Legitimacy and Revenue
Introduced| English | Meaning |
|---|---|
| devshirme/ˈdevʃɜːm/ | The Ottoman levy of Christian boys for state and military service. |
| salaried samurai/ˈsælərid ˈsæmjʊəraɪ/ | salaried samurai |
| divine right/dɪˈvaɪn raɪt/ | divine right |
| Tax farming/tæks ˈfɑːmɪŋ/ | Tax farming |
Rulers needed people they could replace
- Recruitment and use of bureaucratic elites, as well as the development of military professionals, became more common among rulers who wanted to maintain centralised control over their populations and resources.
- The CED's examples: the Ottoman devshirme 德夫希尔梅 and salaried samurai 领俸武士.
- Both create servants of the state whose position comes from the ruler, not from inherited land — the opposite of a feudal lord.
Select all the CED's methods of maintaining centralised control.
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Architecture legitimises; hereditary landholding is the opposite of centralised control.
Legitimacy you can see
- Rulers continued to use religious ideas, art and monumental architecture to legitimise their rule.
- Religious ideas: Mexica human sacrifice, European divine right 君权神授, Songhai's promotion of Islam.
- Art and architecture: Qing imperial portraits, the Incan sun temple of Cuzco, Mughal mausolea and mosques, and European palaces such as Versailles.
Three instruments for a ruler over people not his own- used differently by each empire
The Taj Mahal- the same instrument, used by a Mughal ruler over a religiously plural population
Tax farming means the state...
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The farmer keeps the surplus — and gains local power in the process.
Three ways to raise money
- Rulers used tribute collection, tax farming and innovative tax-collection systems to generate revenue in order to forward state power and expansion.
- Tax farming 包税制 sells the right to collect: the state gets money now, the farmer keeps the surplus.
- The CED's systems: Mughal zamindar collection, Ottoman tax farming, Mexica tribute lists, and the Ming practice of collecting taxes in hard currency.
Legitimising, consolidating, or raising revenue?
Sort each method by the job it does.
Select all the CED's tools of legitimation.
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Tax farming raises revenue; it does not argue for the ruler.
Legitimising and consolidating are different jobs. A mosque, a portrait and a doctrine of divine right answer why obey?; a devshirme corps, a salaried official and a tax-farming contract answer with what? An answer that treats architecture as administration has confused the two verbs in the objective.
The Ottoman ____ produced servants whose position came from the ruler, not from inherited land.
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The opposite of a feudal lord.
Every method has a cost
- Tax farming raises cash quickly but hands local power to the collector.
- Salaried professionals are loyal but expensive, and the salary bill grows with the empire.
- Monumental architecture buys legitimacy but consumes exactly the revenue that the tax system worked to raise.
Match each method to its cost.
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Every method has a cost, and the exam rewards noticing it.
Legitimise and consolidate are two verbs
- The objective says rulers used methods to legitimise and consolidate their power.
- Legitimise is about belief: why this ruler should be obeyed. Consolidate is about capacity: officials, soldiers, revenue.
- A strong answer names one method of each and shows how they paid for each other.
The Ottoman state recruits boys through the devshirme into a corps that owes everything to the sultan, funds them through tax farming, and builds mosques that state whose rule this is. Recruitment consolidates, architecture legitimises, and tax farming pays for both — one system, three jobs.
Rulers recruited bureaucratic elites and military professionals (devshirme, salaried samurai) to keep centralised control; used religious ideas, art and monumental architecture to legitimise rule; and used tribute, tax farming and innovative tax systems for revenue. Legitimise answers why obey; consolidate answers with what.
Write from a tomb that displayed legitimacy
- A Mughal ruler built a great tomb.
- Land taxes supplied much of the money.
What political job did the building do?
Rulers spent revenue on visible symbols of the right to rule.
What did the tomb do for the ruler?
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A public monument made power visible.