Economic Systems and State Finance
The Origins of the Modern State in Europe 13th to 18th Centuries
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:20th Apr '95
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This comprehensive study examines state finance in Europe from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century, analyzing economic and fiscal development through a comparative lens, contributing significantly to historical discourse.
Economic Systems and State Finance presents a comprehensive study of state finance across Europe from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century. This ambitious work, crafted by a team of prominent European scholars, serves as the inaugural volume in the Origins of the Modern State in Europe series. This series emerges from a significant international research initiative backed by the European Sciences Foundation, aiming to unite experts from various countries to reinterpret the formation of the state from a comparative European perspective over several centuries.
The book begins with a critical reassessment of the feudal system and the early developments in state finance, progressing through a comparative analysis of economic and fiscal growth across different nations. It spans the timeline up to 1815, culminating in Britain's emergence as the sole state to achieve economic dominance during this period. The authors strive to move beyond the traditional historiographical focus on twentieth-century borders, offering a broader understanding of state formation and finance.
Structured into four thematic chapters—expenditure, revenues, public credit, and the fiscal burden—the text is supported by a wealth of data, including 97 figures derived from a robust research database established during the project. Economic Systems and State Finance stands as a significant scholarly contribution, poised to influence historical discourse and deepen our understanding of the evolution of state finance in Europe.
This ambitious collaboration has brought to bear an immense amount of data and expertise across a very broad chronological and geographical range. This range and variety makes it an extremely valuable book and it whets the appetite for the other projected volumes ... A rich and thought-provoking book that will serve as a work of reference for the generalist and a point of departure for future research. It deserves a wide readership and will certainly stimulate further comparative work on crucial aspects of European history in these six centuries. * The Economic History Review *
in Richard Bonney the series has foind exactly the right blend of qualities to see it successfully launched...the book is its own monument...will this book and its components sit, like the CMH, dusty and unconsulted on the open shelves indispensably ignored? This one deserves a better fate, for it brings into focus some fundamental aspect so of the fiscal old regime, not to mention the later Middle Ages...like some of the best books, it offers worhtwhile insights and information whenever it falls open, and has no rival or counterpart anywhere else, Future historians of old regime Europe will be unable to imagine what life was like without it * German History *
uppressive collection of essays ... Bonney and his collaborators have provided a massive agenda for future historians, presenting them with a body of data and establishing taxonomies of the forms of domain and tax states. * Times Higher Education Supplement *
Specialists from different countries offer a new approach to the development of state finance and fiscal systems in Europe from the 13th to the 18th centuries. * The Medieval World *
The importance of a state's fiscal constitution in reflecting its character and development has not always been acknowleded by historians, thought it was often prominent in the minds of contemporaries. This book renders future neglect inexcusable, Its eclectic and comparative approach amply illustrates the diversity but consistency of the European pattern of state-building. * G.L. Harriss, EHR Apr.96 *
ISBN: 9780198205456
Dimensions: 242mm x 163mm x 42mm
Weight: 1154g
674 pages