In France, lords responded to the demographic crash by building an absolutist state that provided them with income funded by universal, country-wide taxes on the peasantry rather than decentralized feudal levies. This meant that serfs couldn’t play one lord against another to gain better conditions or win their freedom.
Universal taxation still, in a sense, helps the wealthy generate wealth and keeps them in power. Citizens, burdened by taxes and struggling to secure income, are less likely to organize against a political system.
