I argue that firearms, by reducing the cost of keeping the peasant population under control, allowed the elite groups in Europe to increase their rate of exploitation, 1500-1650, by enserfing peasants in Eastern Europe and by raising taxes in Western Europe, in both areas causing real wages to fall (roughly) by half. Similarly, the improved firearms the French brought to South East Asia allowed the local elites to move to the cities and break the old cooperative jajmani relationship between landlord and peasant.
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