Epidemic Diseases in Primeval Era

While the most frightening epidemic diseases which demands the most time for its elimination throughout the history of humanity spontaneously emerged, at first, due to the change in social life and consumption conditions, they were then developed as biological threats in line with strategic goals.

The Peloponnesian War, which lasted 27 years between Athens and Sparta (and the allies of these two city states) in the Ancient Greek geography between 431 and 404 BC, paved the way for the Athens Outbreak, which was the first outbreak in history and resulted in the death of a third of the population (History.com Editors 2020).

Although it is called the plague outbreak in the beginning, it is thought, as inferred from the related works of Thukydides, the second great historian of Ancient Greece, that it might have been bubonic plague, smallpox, measles, typhoid, typhus, and even Ebola. However, in the last quarter of the twentieth century, it was understood that the epidemic was caused by typhoid, a water-based pathogen, upon examining the mass graves determined to belong to the Peloponnesian War period. As Thukydides

Table 2.2 Global pandemic examples: period, host, death toll

Source LePan (2020)

stated in his writings, it was found that those who were sick threw themselves into the surrounding wells due to high fever and the epidemic spread rapidly from these wells (Turan 2018).

In the Roman Empire, The Antonine Outbreak (Galen Outbreak), which was effective between 165 and 180 AC, was the biggest epidemic ever seen. The origin/contamination point of the outbreak caused by smallpox was thought to be the ParthiaExpedition of Roman Legions, especially in 165. On the one hand, the Roman soldiers who returned to their posts after the expedition and on the other hand, the active use of the Silk Road caused the spread of the epidemic in a large geography from Asia to Europe and the death of more than 5 million people (Diamond 2010). Most of the Roman army was lost due to the epidemic, and commercial activities were interrupted. This process was perceived as the beginning of the end for the Roman Empire.

2.3.1 Three Plague Outbreaks and Financial Practices

The epidemic that human history has had to struggle with the most has been the plague. Although having a complicated chronology and painful results from the Middle Ages up to the twentieth century, plague outbreaks are gathered under three main episodes. These are (Achtman et al. 1999; Abbott and Rocke 2012, Snowden 2019): Justinian plague outbreak (fifth century-seventh century); Black Death (thirteenth-fifteenth century); and modern plague outbreak (after 1870).

2.3.2 Justinian Plague Outbreak and Financial Practices

The Justinian Plague outbreak, which was the first plague outbreak in the Middle Ages and occurred in 541-542, started in Ethiopia and turned to Anatolia through the Mediterranean and Middle East, and from there to the east and west, and affected the continents. The bubonic plague^[2] epidemic spread by black rats and fleas on them carried by cereal ships and cars sent as tribute to Istanbul, which was the center of Byzantium, resulted in the death of 50 million people in 3 years. The death of 16,000 people in Constantinople (Istanbul) in just one day has led to the perception of the epidemic as “the wrath of God.” The vast majority of the population going down with the disease brought agricultural and economic activities to a standstill, and as a result, a spiral of scarcity and inflation was introduced (Arik 1991; Horgan 2014).

As a result of the interruption of production and consumption during these periods, the fact that the tax-generating event could not happen resulted in a decrease in tax revenues. Despite such a collapse of the economic system, Emperor Justinian (Justinyen) continued to collect the same level of tax from the declining popula­tion. In addition, despite the economic, financial, and demographic conditions of the day, the Emperor started wars on other principalities and even engaged in public investment projects despite the lack of resources (such as the capital Hagia Sophia and church construction) (Horgan 2014; Huremovic 2019). The church construc­tion work continued as it was believed that it was possible to get rid of the existing diseases by praying.

2.3.3 Black Death Epidemic Period and Financial Practices

The bubonic plague epidemic, which played an important role in the collapse of the Roman Empire, was the deadliest epidemic in history under the name of Black Death^[3] because it caused the death of 200 million people between 1347 and 1351 (Acemoglu and Robinson 2013). The plague carried by the fleas living on the rats was spread from China to the Mediterranean through the merchants using the Silk Road; by the Mongolian armies to Kefe; and to Istanbul, Sicily, and Europe through the Genoese who fled Kefa. Living conditions of medieval Europe (living in the same house with animals in the narrow living spaces in the city surrounded by high stone wall for protection from invasion, low immune system due to food shortage), religious traditions (especially some churches see “pollution” as a form of holiness), and increasing population accelerated the spread of the plague. As a public service in the face of this two-headed illness mutating in Europe and turned into a lung plague, Parisians were tried to be warned with black flags hanging on the bell towers (Ozden and Ozmat 2014).

In the early fourteenth century, when the plague began, unequal power relations in medieval Europe deepened economic depression and poverty, causing the epidemic to particularly increase its financial impact. This is summarized by the paleoecologist Per Lageras as follows (Snowden 2019):

Even under normal circumstances, ordinary people are poor in medieval Europe. They are faced with high tax burdens, rentals, 10% of landowner taxes on the product in England (tithes) and heavy working burdens. In the European economy based on agriculture, while the upper class of the period did not want to compromise on the level of well-being and luxury spending, the population is growing in Europe and revenues are insufficient and the period of economic recession began. Especially with the effect of climate conditions, revenues declined rapidly, which disturbed the upper class, and thus, taxes and rents were increased. As a result of the stagnant economy and unsustainable agriculture, people have reached the limit of hunger.

The scarcity of labor supply as a result of the plague epidemic encouraged the surviving peasants and made them demanding about the wage increases and decrease in their liabilities and chores. Despite various legal arrangements (such as the control of the increase in wages by the Labour Law, imprisonment for those who leave work without the consent of the employer) aiming at eliminating the developments unsettling the feudal structure, the desired success was not achieved (Acemoglu and Robinson 2013). In fact, the Peasants’ Revolt was initiated in 1381 under the leadership of Watt Tyler as a result of; the removal of various privileges after the epidemic in England which were introduced during the plague epidemic (such as the allocation of land to be paid in time by working), the obligation to work in the church for at least two days a week as a tax in kind, and the poll tax, which was enacted in 1380 to finance the French war (5 pound fixed tax collected in cash).

The age-changing victory, the conquest of Istanbul (1453), brought about the continuous expansion of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire lived three phases of plague (Varlik 2018):

• “First phase” between 1453 and 1517 through caravan routes in the Balkans and European ports in the Mediterranean,

• “Second phase” between 1517 and 1570 as a result of the conquest of Syria, Egypt, Mecca, and Medina and the increasing population and centralized policies implemented,

• “Third phase” between 1570 and 1600 as a result of Istanbul becoming the nodes of the disease that affected Europe, North Africa, and Near East.

During his visit to Egypt, Evliya Qelebi emphasized the financial impact of the epidemic by stating that a village was abandoned nine times within three months due to the ta’un^[4] epidemic; the tax farmers gave up their tax collection rights because they could not collect income (Erta§ and Egjnim 2011).

The Ottoman Empire, which spread to three continents during its strongest era, was affected by outbreaks due to its geographical location. In this process, especially Suleiman the Magnificent built thousands of health institutions across the continents with the idea of, “There is no respected object in the public as state/there is no such thing in the world as health”. However, despite the public measures taken, hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives (Ba§agaoglu et al.

The epidemic, which continued until the mid-eighteenth century, reappeared in 1640 in Scotland, 1665-1666 in the UK, 1710 in the Netherlands, 1720-1722 in France, and 1743 in Italy. Therefore, the impact of the 2nd plague epidemic, called Black Death, continued in Europe from 1347 to 1743, albeit intermittently with different waves (Snowden 2019).

In eighteenth-century France, a privileged class corresponding to 5% of the 25 million population consisted of nobles and clergies, while 95% consisted of the non­privileged class of bourgeoisie, craftsman and (22 million) peasants. The peasants were obliged to pay “tax” to the state, “feudal tribute” to the noble class, and “tithe” to the clergy class (Huberman 2009). In the last quarter of the eighteenth century, the poor people in France were almost crushed under the taxes that the king and the nobility who paid no tax but had the privilege to impose feudal tax applied to reduce the budget deficit. French peasants were subject to heavy tax and financial obligations, such as tithes to the church, 20% income tax (vingtieme), poll tax (capitation), salt tax (gabelle), cash feudal rent (cens), rent in kind (champart), land purchase and sale tax (lods et ventes), corporal tax (corvee) as a participation in the compulsory road construction work (Rude 2015). Despite the fact that feudalism was in the process of dissolving in the eighteenth century, the villagers were exposed to heavy feudal obligations for a long time. The heaviest of these was the taxes on salt and wine (Yakut 2010). As a matter of fact, salt had been used to protect foods for a long time and to prevent the spread of outbreaks throughout history. In times when the salt, also called white gold, was insufficient, famine and outbreaks were seen. The fact that French villagers had to spend about 15% of their income on salt tax, persecution in tax collections, salt smuggling, and heavy penalties led to reduced salt consumption, causing food to deteriorate and weaken the people against epidemics. It was even an important factor on the road to the French Revolution of 1789 (Sharman 2019).

2.3.4 Modern Plague Outbreak and Financial Practices

With the industrial revolution that started in the UK, especially the production of steam machines increased international trade and economic development, while causing the rapid transport of epidemic diseases. In this context, the third major epidemic, referred to as the Central Asia-origin Modern Plague Outbreak, was inevitable. The plague epidemic that emerged in China in 1855 had its effect in Canton and Hong Kong in 1894. Thanks to international trade with steamships, not only goods but also rats with fleas moved to the cities of Buenos Aires, Honolulu, Sydney, Cape Town, Naples, Oporto, and San Francisco (Abbott and Rocke 2012; Snowden 2019).

Apart from the plague, the nineteenth-century world also witnessed outbreaks such as cholera and typhoid (Karalose 2017). After the plague epidemic in Aleppo at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the fact that Christians, who carried out the majority of commercial activities, quarantined themselves at home, disrupted the economic life. The governor of Aleppo introduced new taxes to this segment, who resisted staying at home and discontinuing commercial activity (Marcus 2013 cited in Qaltskan Eyicil, 2019). Having a dynamic and active structure with activities such as military expeditions, trade relations, pilgrimage visits, the Ottoman Empire faced a strong epidemic again in 1894 (Turna 2011).

Diseases such as plague (cattle plague) and cholera were combatted during the nineteenth century by some measures such as increasing the taxes on sheep and goats for Aleppo’s cleaning expenses, collecting taxes for cord costs in Damascus, building new hospitals, assigning doctors, pharmacists, and veterinarians from the center (Qali§kan and Eyicil 2019). Since the epidemic caused the death of many people and animals, it affected the economic and social life negatively.

Although different diseases were observed during the modern plague epidemic period, the result did not change. It is stated that the modern plague epidemic ended in the 1960s by the World Health Organization. However, occasional plague cases are accepted as the aftershocks of the modern plague epidemic (Varlik 2018).

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