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Before the formation of nation states, tributary systems were widespread. In such a system, the elites exacted tributes, in cash or in kind, from their subjects. Tributary systems can be characterized by the absence of institutions – general political administration, judicial and religious politics - that could have reached and intervened on behalf of the masses. Effective arbitration institutions did not exist, forcing people to settle their conflicts through customary practices. In the Middle Ages, the tributary system was reflected in charters and fueros. In the early modern period, at the time nation states already existed, the use of tributary Continue reading...