The aim of this project is to clarify the role played by public institutions in fostering or limiting economic inequality. Specifically, it observes (I) how the evolution of the taxation system and the gradual decline of the incomes gained from common properties (the levying) and the public expenditure (the redistribution) affected the dynamics of economic inequality in Venetian Lombardy from the late Middle Ages up until the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. More, it analyses another side of the problem, (II) that is the complementary growing inequality in gaining access in the decision-making.