The Hussite Reformation, a religious reform movement taking place in 15th century Bohemia, was largely a popular movement, and thus has motivations rooted in overcoming the harsh class struggles of the time. The primary precursors to the social unrest in 15th century Bohemia at the time, were the large gaps in inequality that were exacerbated by the high taxes of the time. The economic state of Bohemia, though once prosperous, began to falter as the kingdom became more reliant on its internal trade. As a result they began to cheapen the silver being produced at the Kutna Hora mine by mixing it with other materials in order to spread it further. This caused a dramatic devaluation in currency, particularly the coin used most commonly among the lower and working classes, affecting their ability to pay considerably.^[1]

In response to losing both sources of revenue, and as a result of the ongoing power struggle between King Wenceslas and the nobility, he attempted to raise revenue by increasing taxes across the kingdom. However, Bohemia lacked a progressive tax system meaning that the peasant class took on the brunt of the tax burden, thus widening the inequality gap. One study regarding wealth disparities in Bohemia, used the distribution of wealth within the town of Budweis as a microcosm for the conditions across Bohemia. While the wealthiest 2% of the population owned 30% of all wealth, the bottom 66% had less than 10% of the wealth. In addition to the information on the exact distribution of wealth within Budweis, the Gini Coefficient was also calculated to be 0.7.^[2] The value is a commonly used measure of income inequality within a data set, however any value above 0.5 indicates the existence of extreme income inequality. Using Budweis as a representation of the whole of Bohemia, it can be stated that the peasant class in the kingdom was facing harsh inequalities of wealth. It can also be used to demonstrate how tensions regarding wealth distribution could develop in the poorer communities.

[1] Klassen, J. (1990). THE DISADVANTAGED AND THE HUSSITE REVOLUTION. International Review of Social History, 35(2), 249–272. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44582087

[2] Daniel Kolar (2023) Inequality in pre-industrial Bohemia: The city of Budweis, Post-Communist Economies, 35:3, 298-314.