Paying for the Liberal State

Public finance is a major feature of the development of modern European societies, and it is at the heart of the definition of the nature of political regimes. Public finance is also a most relevant issue in the understanding of the constraints and possibilities of economic development. This book is about the rise and development of taxation systems, expenditure programs, and debt regimes in Europe from the early nineteenth century to the beginning of World War I. Its main purpose is to describe and explain the process by which financial resources were raised and managed. The volume presents studies of nine countries or empires that are considered highly representative of the widest European experience on the matter and discusses whether there are any common patterns in the way the different European states responded to the need for raising additional resources to pay for the new tasks they were performing.

'Historians have long puzzled over the fact that taxes, government spending, and government debt rose as a share of the economy at the same time that institutions became more liberal in the sense of allowing, and lightly taxing, freer markets. This well-structured team study reconciles global patterns with the diversity of eight countries’ individual trajectories across the long nineteenth century. Yes, successful development did follow a general evolution in fiscal structure, yet the national departures from the global path prove as instructive as the average tendency itself.'

Peter H. Lindert - University of California, Davis

'A recent wave of historical literature has dealt in depth and sophistication with state formation in early modern Europe. The editors of this volume are to be warmly congratulated for recruiting such a top-class team of scholars to take that fascinating and important theme in European history forward from l815 into the twentieth century.'

Patrick Karl O’Brien, FBA - London School of Economics

'How the foundations of liberal societies in Europe were established from a financial point of view is the topic of this book. In continental Europe, the transition from mercantilism to liberalism was painstaking, and failure was often more significant than success in comparison to the U.K. or U.S. experiences. Designing acceptable and enforceable rules about the distribution of the costs of the modern state was at the core of the political struggle in nineteenth-century Europe, and important lessons can be derived for present-day developing countries in which state formation is still at stake. The contributions to this well-edited volume represent the first comprehensive and successful attempt to address this important issue.'

Leandro Prados de la Escosura - Universidad Carlos III, Madrid

'Paying for the Liberal State deals with the evolution of tax systems, expenditure programs, and debt regimes in Europe during the century before World War I, right on the eve of the modern welfare state. This is a wonderful collection by outstanding scholars who make this book a must-read for those who appreciate the role of political economy in driving the wealth of nations.'

Jeffrey G. Williamson - Harvard University and University of Wisconsin

'A team of outstanding scholars shows how the success of the nineteenth-century European liberal state was to a considerable extent predicated on the efficiency and fairness of taxation and public expenditure. Lessons for the present abound.'

Gianni Toniolo - Duke University