What was the impact of urban political structure on preindustrial wealth inequality? I document that more closed political institutions were associated with higher inequality in a panel of early-modern German cities. To investigate the mechanisms behind that macro-relationship, I construct a unique individual-level panel dataset on personal wealth and political office-holding in the city-state of Nördlingen (1579–1700). I employ a difference-in-differences setting to show that political elites enriched themselves substantially, increasing inequality. To address endogeneity concerns, I exploit the Thirty-Years’ War as a shock to elites’ potential for enrichment from public office. Officials manipulated this crisis to enrich themselves further.

城市政治结构对工业化前财富不平等有何影响？我记录了在早期现代德国城市中，更封闭的政治机构与更高的不平等相关。为了研究这种宏观关系背后的机制，我构建了一个关于诺德林根城邦（1579-1700）的个人财富和政治职务的独特个人层面面板数据集。我采用了双重差异的设置来表明政治精英极大地丰富了自己，从而加剧了不平等。为了解决内生性问题，我利用三十年战争作为对精英从公职致富潜力的冲击。官员们利用这场危机来进一步充实自己。