A medieval English tax levied on land values and productive capacity, particularly related to the carucate or plowland, used to fund military campaigns and royal expenses.
From Medieval Latin 'carucagium,' derived from 'caruca' (carucate or plowland). Carucage emerged in 12th-13th century England as a more sophisticated tax system replacing earlier feudal levies, based on land productivity rather than simple headcounts.
Carucage was an early attempt at progressive taxation based on wealth—the more productive your land, the more you paid—which sounds modern, but English nobles hated it so much they forced King John to abandon it in the Magna Carta!
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