Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-t5pn6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T14:29:20.673Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Military Expenditure, Spending Capacity and Budget Constraint in Eighteenth-Century Spain and Britain*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2010

José Jurado Sánchez
José Jurado Sánchez
Affiliation:
Complutense University of Madrida
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Using new public spending statistics for Spain and other various indicators we show that Spain and Britain suffered larger increases in public expenditure in the periods in which they fought each other and other countries. The British Exchequer spent much more than its Spanish counterpart, especially on the Army and Navy and debt repayment. This situation helps to explain why Britain emerged victorious against Spain in the majority of these wars and was a consequence of the political and institutional changes made in England from 1688 onwards, reducing budget constraint and allowing Britain to mobilise the necessary resources to become the leading world power. In Spain, however, the changes required to eliminate the country's history of bankruptcies and increase its spending capacity were not made.

Resumen

Utilizando unas nuevas series del gasto de la Hacienda española y algunos otros indicadores se comprueba que España y Gran Bretaña sufrieron grandes aumentos del gasto público en aquellos periodos en que guerrearon entre sí y con otros países. El Estado británico gastó mucho más dinero que el español, sobre todo en los capítulos militares y el servicio de la Deuda, lo que contribuye a explicar por qué Gran Bretaña venció a España en la mayoría de los conflictos que libraron ambos países. Esto era, en buena parte, una consecuencia de los cambios políticos e institucionales llevados a cabo en Inglaterra a fines del siglo XVII, que limitaron las restricciones presupuestarias y facilitaron que Gran Bretaña llegara a ser la primera potencia mundial, mientras que en España no se hicieron las transformaciones necesarias para hacer olvidar su larga tradición de bancarrotas y aumentar su capacidad de gasto.

Keywords

public expendituremilitary outlaysspending capacityBritish and Spanish National Budgets (18th century)gasto públicogasto militarpresupuestoscapacidad de gastoGran Bretaña y España (siglo XVIII)
Type
Artículos/Articles
Information
Revista de Historia Economica - Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , Primavera 2009 , pp. 141 - 174
Copyright
Copyright © Instituto Figuerola de Historia y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aerts, E., and Crouzet, F. (eds.) (1990): «Economic Effects of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars». Proceedings of the Tenth International Economic History Conference, Leuven.Google Scholar
Alexander, W. R. J. (1990): «The Impact of Defence Spending on Economic Growth: A Multisectorial Approach to Defence Spending and Economic Growth with Evidence from Developed Economies». Defence Economics, 2 (1), pp. 39–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Álvarez-Nogal, C., and Prados de la Escosura, L. (2007): «The decline of Spain (1500–1800): conjectural estimates». European Review of Economic History, II, pp. 319–366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anes, G. (1970): Las crisis agrarias en la España moderna, Madrid: Taurus Ediciones.Google Scholar
Ardant, G. (1975): «Financial Policy and Economic Infrastructure of Modern States and Nations», in Tilly, Ch., The Formation of National States in Western Europe, Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 164–242.Google Scholar
Barbier, J., y Klein, H. S. (1985): «Las prioridades de un monarca ilustrado: el gasto público bajo el reinado de Carlos III». Revista de Historia Económica, 3, pp. 473–495.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beckett, J., and Turner, M. (1990): «Taxation and Economic Growth in Eighteenth-Century England». Economic History Review, 43, 3, pp. 373–403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernal, A. M. (2005): España, proyecto inacabado. Los costes/beneficios del Imperio, Madrid: Marcial Pons.Google Scholar
Bonney, R. (ed.) (1995): Economic System and State Finance, Oxford: Clarendom Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonney, R. (ed.) (1999): The Rise of the Fiscal State in Europe, c.1200–1815, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bordo, M., and White, E. N. (1991): «A Tale of Two Currencies: British and French Finance during the Napoleonic War». Journal of Economic History, 51, pp. 303–316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowen, H. V., and González-Enciso, A. (eds.) (2006): Mobilising Resources for War: Britain and Spain at Work during the Early Modern Period, Pamplona: EUNSA.Google Scholar
Brewer, J. (1989): The Sinews of Power. War, Money and the English State, 1688–1783, London: Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Bustelo, F. (1993): «La población: del estancamiento a la recuperación», in Molas, P., La transición del siglo XVII al XVIII. Entre la decadencia y la recuperación, Historia de España Menéndez Pidal, vol. 28. Madrid: Espasa–Calpe, pp. 509–549.Google Scholar
Carreras, A. (2003): «Spain», en Mokyr, J. (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History, vol. 4, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 539–553.Google Scholar
Cicero, M. T. (1913–1921): The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, London: Bell and Sons.Google Scholar
Collins, J. B. (1988): Fiscal Limits of Absolutism: Direct Taxation in Early Seventeenth-Century France, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Crafts, N. F. R. (1985): British economic growth during the Industrial Revolution, Oxford: Clarendom Press.Google Scholar
Crafts, N. F. R. (1987): «British Economic Growth, 1700–1850; Some Difficulties of Interpretation». Explorations in Economic History, 24, pp. 245–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Course of the Exchange (The), bi-weekly issues published by John Castaign and Edward Wetenhall (microfilm series to 1816 and original since 1817 in the Goldsmith Library, Senate House, University of London).Google Scholar
Deane, P., and Cole, W. A. (1962): British Economic Growth, 1688–1959, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dickson, P. G. M. (1967): The Financial Revolution in England: A Study in the Development of Public Credit, 1688–1756, London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Domínguez-Ortiz, A. (1981): Sociedad y Estado en el siglo XVIII español, Barcelona, Ariel.Google Scholar
Domke, W. K.; Eichenberg, R. C., and Kelleher, C. M. (1983): «The Illusion of Choice: Defense and Welfare in Advanced Industrial Democracies, 1948–1978». American Political Science Review, 77, pp. 19–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunne, P. (1990): «The Political Economy of Military Expenditure: an introduction». Cambridge Journal of Economics, 14, 4, pp. 395–404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Earle, P. (1990): «The Sinews of Power: War, Money and the English State, 1688–1783». Economic History Review, 43, pp. 1–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ertman, T. (1994): «The Sinews of Power and European State-Building theory», in Stone, L., An Imperial State at War: Britain from 1688 to 1815, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Eiras-Roel, A. (1990): Estudios sobre agricultura y población en la España moderna, Santiago de Compostela: Tórculo.Google Scholar
Eloranta, J. (2002): «European states in the international arms trade, 1920–1937: the impact of external threats, market forces, and domestic constraints». Scandinavian Economic History Review, 50, pp. 44–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eloranta, J. (2007): «From the great illusion to the Great War: Military spending behaviour of the Great Powers, 1870–1913». European Review of Economic History, II, pp. 255–283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engerman, S. L., and O'Brien, P. K. (2004): «The industrial revolution in global perspective», in Floud, R. and Johnson, P. (eds.), The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain. Industrialisation (vol. 1), 1700–1860, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 451–464.Google Scholar
Ferguson, N. (1999): The Pity of War: Explaining World War I, New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Ferguson, N. (2001): The Cash Nexus. Money and Power in the Modern World, 1700–2000, New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Fernández-Albaladejo, P. (1979): «El decreto de suspensión de pagos de 1739: análisis e implicaciones». Moneda y Crédito, 142, pp. 51–85.Google Scholar
Fernández-Díaz, R. (ed.) (1985): España en el siglo XVIII. Homenaje a Pierre Vilar, Barcelona: Crítica.Google Scholar
García-Lombardero, J. (1978): «Algunos problemas de la administración y cobranzas de las rentas provinciales en la primera mitad del siglo XVIII», in Otazu, A. (ed.), Dinero y crédito (siglos XVI al XIX). Actas I Congreso Internacional de Historia Económica, Madrid: Moneda y Crédito, pp. 63–87.Google Scholar
Glete, J. (2002): War and the State in Early Modern Europe: Spain, the Dutch Republic and Sweden as fiscal-military States, 1500–1650, London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
González Enciso, A. (2007): «A Moderate and Rational Absolutism. Spanish Fiscal Policy in the First Half of the Eighteenth Century», in TORRES, (ed.), War, State and Development. Fiscal-Military States in the Eighteenth Century, Pamplona: EUNSA, pp. 109–132.Google Scholar
Harling, P., and Mandler, P. (1993): «From “fiscal-military” state to laissez faire state 1760–1850». Journal of British Studies, 32, no 1, pp. 44–70.Google Scholar
Harris, R. D. (1976): «French Finances and the American War, 1777–1783». Journal of Modern History, 48, pp. 233–258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hart, M. (1993): The Making of a Bourgeois State: War, Politics, and Finance in the Dutch Revolt, Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Hart, M. (2007): «Mobilising resources for war. The Dutch and British Financial Revolutions compared», in Torres, (ed.), War, State and Development. Fiscal-Military States in the Eighteenth Century, Pamplona: EUNSA, pp. 179–200.Google Scholar
Hartley, K., and Sandler, T. (eds.) (2001): The Economics of Defence, Cheltenham and Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing.Google Scholar
Hoffman, P. T., and Rosenthal, J. L. (1997): «The political economy of warfare and taxation in early modern Europe: historical lessons for economic development», in Drobak, J. N. and Nye, J. V. C. (eds.), The Frontiers of the New Institutional Economics, San Diego: The Academic Press.Google Scholar
Intriligator, M. D. (1990): «On the Nature and Scope of Defence Economics». Defence Economics, 1 (1), pp. 3–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jurado-Sánchez, J. (2006): El gasto de la Hacienda española durante el siglo XVIII. Cuantía y estructura de los pagos del Estado (1703–1800), Madrid: Instituto de Estudios Fiscales.Google Scholar
Kamen, H. (1969): The War of Succession in Spain, 1700–1715, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Kamen, H. (2002): Spain's Road to Empire, Allen Lane: Penguin Press.Google Scholar
Kennedy, P. (1987): The rise and fall of the great powers: economic change and military conflict from 1500 to 2000, New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Körner, M. (1995): «Expenditure», in Bonney, R. (ed.), Economic System and State Finance, Oxford: Clarendom Press, pp. 393–422.Google Scholar
Livi-Bacci, M. (1978): «La fecundidad y el crecimiento demográfico en España en los siglos XVIII y XIX», in Glass, D. V. y Revelle, R. (eds.), Población y cambio social. Estudios de demografía histórica, Madrid; Tecnos, pp. 176–187.Google Scholar
Maddison, A. (2001): The World Economy. A Millennial Perspective, París: OECD.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mann, M. (1986): The Sources of Social Power. A history of power from the beginning to A.D. 1760, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Marcos-Martín, A. (2000): España en los siglos XVI, XVII y XVIII. Economía y sociedad, Barcelona: Crítica.Google Scholar
Merino-Navarro, J. P. (1981a): «La Hacienda de Carlos IV». Hacienda Pública Española, 69, pp. 139–81.Google Scholar
Merino-Navarro, J. P. (1981b): La Armada española en el siglo XVIII, Madrid: Fundación Universitaria Española.Google Scholar
Merino-Navarro, J. P. (1987): Las cuentas de la Administración central española, 1750–1820, Madrid: Instituto de Estudios Fiscales.Google Scholar
Mintz, A. (1989): «“Guns vs. Butter”: A Disaggregated Analysis». American Political Science Review, 83, pp. 1285–1293.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, B. R., and Deane, P. (1962): Abstract of British Historical Statistics, London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Modelski, G., and Thompson, W. R. (1988): Seapower in Global Policitics, 1494–1993, London: MacMillan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mousnier, R., and Labrousse, E. (1981): El siglo XVIII. Revolución intelectual, técnica y política (1715–1815), Barcelona: Ediciones Destino.Google Scholar
Nadal, J. (1984): La población española (siglos XVI–XX), Barcelona: Ariel.Google Scholar
North, D. C., and Weingast, B. (1989): «Constitutions and Commitment: the Evolution of Institutions Government Public Choice in Seventeenth-Century Britain». The Journal of Economic History, 49, 4, pp. 803–832.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Brien, P. K. (1988): «The political economy of British taxation, 1660–1815». Economic History Review, 1, pp. 1–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Brien, P. K., and Hunt, P. A. (1993): «The Rise of a Fiscal State in England, 1485–1815«. Historical Research. The Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, 66, pp. 129–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Brien, P. K., and Hunt, P. A. (1999): «England, 1485–1815», in Bonney, R. (ed.), The Rise of the Fiscal State in Europe, c.1200–1815, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Officer, L. H. (1982): Purchasing power parity and exchange rates: theory, evidence and relevance, Greenwich: JAI Press.Google Scholar
Ozanam, D. (1978): «Notas para un estudio de los presupuestos de la monarquía española a mediados del siglo XVIII», in Otazu, A. (ed.), Dinero y crédito (siglos XVI–XIX). Actas I Coloquio Internacional de Historia Económica, Madrid: Moneda y Crédito, pp. 49–62.Google Scholar
Ozanam, D. (1996): «La política exterior de España en tiempo de Felipe V y Fernando VI», in Jover-Zamora, J. M. (dir.), La época de los primeros Borbones. I. La nueva monarquía y su posición en Europa (1700–1759). Historia de España Menéndez Pidal, Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, vol. 29. pp. 441–699.Google Scholar
Parker, G. (1988): The Military Revolution: Military Innovation and the Rise of the West, 1500–1800, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Peacock, A. T., and Wiseman, J. (1961): The Growth of Public Expenditure in the United Kingdom, Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Pérez-Moreda, V. (1997): «La evolución demográfica», in de Rosa, L. and Encisorecio, L. M. (eds.), Spagna e Mezzogiorno d'Italia nell'Etá della Transizione (1650–1750), Napoli: Edicione Scientifiche Italiana, pp. 139–144.Google Scholar
Pieper, R. (1988): Die spanischen Kronfinanzen in der zweiten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts (1753–1788): ökonomische und soziale Auswirkungen, Stuttgar: Franz Steiner.Google Scholar
Prados, L. (1993): «La pérdida del imperio y sus consecuencias económicas», en Prados, L. y Amaral, S. (eds.), La independencia americana: sus consecuencias económicas, Madrid: Alianza, pp. 253–300.Google Scholar
Richardson, L. F. (1953): «The Submissiveness of Nations». British Journal of Statistical Psychology, VI (II), pp. 77–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogoff, K. (1996): «The Purchasing Power Parity Puzzle». Journal of Economic Literature, 34, pp. 647–668.Google Scholar
Russet, B. (1982): «Defense expenditures and National Well Being». American Political Science Review, 76, pp. 767–777.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sarno, L., and Taylor, M. P. (2002): The economics of exchange rates, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schumpeter, J. A. (1918): «Die Krise des Steuerstaates». Zeifragen aus dem Gebiet des Soziologie, 4, pp. 1–71.Google Scholar
Smith, (1989): «Models of Military Expenditure». Journal of Applied Econometrics, 4 (4), pp. 345–359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, I. A. A. (1992): «Taxation, military spending and the domestic economy in Castile in the later sixteenth century», in Thompson, I. A. A. (ed.), War and Society in Habsburg Spain. Selected Essays, Aldershot: Variorum, pp. 1–21.Google Scholar
Tilly, Ch. (1975): The Formation of National States in Western Europe, Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Tilly, Ch. (1992): Coercion, Capital, and European States, A.D. 990–1990, Oxford.Google Scholar
Torres Sánchez, R., Gómez Bizcarri, J., and Pérez de Gracia, F. (2005): «Exchange Rate Behavior and Excange Rate Puzzles: why the 18th Century might help». Revista de Historia Económica, 1, pp. 143–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Torres Sánchez, R., Gómez Bizcarri, J., and Pérez de Gracia, F. (ed.) (2007): War, State and Development. Fiscal-Military States in the Eighteenth Century, Pamplona: EUNSA.Google Scholar
Torres Sánchez, R., Gómez Bizcarri, J., and Pérez de Gracia, F. (2007): «Possibilities and Limits: Testing the Fiscal-Military State in the Anglo-Spanish War of 1779–1783», in Torres, (ed.), War, State and Development. Fiscal-Military States in the Eighteenth Century, Pamplona: EUNSA, pp. 437–460.Google Scholar
Thucydides, (1984): The History of the Peloponnesian War, Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica.Google Scholar
Weber, C., and Widalsky, A. (1986): A History of Taxation and Expenditure in the Western World, New York.Google Scholar
Yun, B. (1994): «Proposals to Quantify Long Term Performance in the Kingdom of Castile, 1550–1800», en Maddison, A. y van der Wee, H. (coords.), Economic growth and structural change. Comparative approaches over the long run on the basis of reconstructed national accounts, Proceedings of the B13 session, XI International Economic History Congress, Milán.Google Scholar
Zanden, J. L. van (2001): «Early modern economic growth: a survey of the European economy, 1500–1800», en Prak, M. (ed.), Early Modern Capitalism, Londres: Routledge, pp. 69–87.Google Scholar
Zanden, J. L. van (2005): «Una estimación del crecimiento económico en la Edad Moderna». Investigaciones de Historia Económica, 2, pp. 9–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar