Physiocrats justified taxation by making the sovereign co-owner of the land

Evidence

But the physiocrats straightaway added this: Economic agents must be left free, but, first, we must take account of the fact that the entire territory of a country is basically the sovereign’s property, or at any rate that the sovereign is co-owner of all the land of the country and so is therefore co-producer. This enabled them to justify taxation. — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 1459

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The physiocratic Economic Table gave the sovereign total transparency over the economy — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at…, 1462; British colonial administrators propagated the fiction of sovereign land ownership. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures, 452; Sovereignty over nature required the modern state’s machinery to become real — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism: A Critique of…, 205 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• British colonial administrators propagated the fiction of sovereign land ownership. #corroborates (0.80) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 452
• Sovereignty over nature required the modern state’s machinery to become real #expands (0.75) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 205
• Absolute monarchies invented standing state credit and tax monopoly #corroborates (0.70)