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Or rather it was simply cheaper to execute someone, pre modern societies simply couldn't really afford keeping a large number of people imprisoned for significa

by qwytw 6y ago

Or rather it was simply cheaper to execute someone, pre modern societies simply couldn't really afford keeping a large number of people imprisoned for significant periods of time. Considering that during some periods a fine or monetary compensation to the victims family was considered to be reasonable punishment for murder and that on the (on the opposite end of the spectrum) during other periods people were often hanged for what we would currently consider to be petty theft, one could argue that pre modern societies were much more concerned about presereving their social order rather than protecting innocent people from harm.

throw0101a 6y ago
> petty theft Petty theft to us now, but in previous ages there was much more scarcity, so any particular item would have been a higher percentage of a person's 'wealth' (property). Further remember that labour is the use of one's most precious resource, time (spent living), for either money or goods (if one crafts something themselves). By stealing a possession, you are stealing a portion of a person's life (that they use to earn/make that possession).