Markets and Taxation : Modern Taxation Principles and the School of Salamanca

Tax systems influence the decisions of private agents. Because of that their evolution and the principles that govern them determine to some extent economic development. Modern tax systems existing in the developed countries follow broadly the principles enunciated by the German economist Fritz Neumark. In this article we will analyze how the evolution of these principles can be traced back to the School of Salamanca, in the XVIth century. To do this we carried out a comparative analysis with the aim of determining what modern taxation principles were developed by theologians-jurists of the School of Salamanca. The results show that at least half of Neumark's eighteen principles were already known by the scholastics of the School of Salamanca