The Rise of Britain’s FiscalMilitary State
Towards the study of Britain as an
imperial power
• We have been discussing the forging of a
British identity
• Colley argued that war was instrumental in
this process
• In the coming weeks we shall examine the
relationship between Britain and its
European and colonial rivals, and the
impact such conflicts had on the British
state
1721
What is a state? The centralised
model
• Penguin Dictionary of Sociology: ‘A state
is a set of institutions governing a
particular territory, with a capacity to make
laws regulating the conduct of the people
within that territory, supported by revenue
deriving from taxation and reliant on a
monopoly of legitimate force’
A different model: the participatory,
self-governing state
• A coordinated and territorially bounded network of
agents exercising political power
• State is distinguished by kind of power exercised rather
than the form of agencies
• Political power is distinctive in being territorially based,
functionally limited and backed by threat of legitimate
physical force
A different model: the participatory,
self-governing state
• Mike Braddick: where are such institutions
located? Who runs them? The state starts to
look rather different: dispersed authority;
negotiated via local office-holders all locally
chosen, unpaid; legitimacy dependent on
consent; self-governing communities
• Was this type of state under threat?
A fiscal-military state
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A state capable of funding and fighting large scale warfare
England had preferred to focus on navy. In 1578 England had 24 ships with
6290 men; in 1688 it had 173 ships with 41,900 men.
But there had been a movement in the direction of a fiscal-military state
before 1689, especially during the civil wars of the 1640s
1647-60 armed men numbered 11-47,000
Pressure to raise money. In 1590s Eliz’s total income was £500,000; a
century later it was 10 times that. Increase well above inflation and
population growth.
Financing the state. 1550-1640 ad hoc measures. Problem of underassessments. Types of tax were therefore a problem. Ship money. Forced
loans.
1640s saw a double transformation: scale of govt revenues increased
dramatically and proportion of total income from parliamentary sources
increased dramatically. New forms: the monthly assessment and excise.
Direct taxation increased from £192,000 pa 1560-1602 to 1.43m pa 16481653
Accelerating pace of change
• GB was at war more frequently and on a wider
scale than ever before:
• 1689-1697 (Nine Years War), 1702-1713 (War
of Spanish Succession),
• 1718-20 (War of the Quadruple Alliance)
• 1739-48 (War of Jenkin’s Ear; War of Austrian
Succession),
• 1756-63 (7 Years War),
• 1775-83 (War of American Independence),
• 1793-1801 (War with Revolutionary France),
1803-1815 (Napoleonic Wars).
Different type of war
• Periods of peace were not truly pacific.
• war on new scale: American war posed
huge logistic problems eg supply lines
over 3000m.
• Acquisition of empire also placed strain on
British state.
The effects
• Expansion of army and navy. In first half of
C18th peacetime army was 35000; after 1763 it
was 45,000 (most stationed in Ireland).
• Armed forced intruded into civilian life.
• After 1689 they comprised 10-15% of the House
of Commons (more than no of lawyers).
• Troops could be used as policemen esp. 1715,
1745, 1780 Gordon Riots.
• GB army dependent on foreign manpower.
Much money spent subsidising other
countries eg £7m in war of Sp succession;
£17.5m 1739-63; over 32,000 Germans
fought for GB vs American colonies. £46m
was spent on loans and subsidies to
foreign states during the wars against
France 1793-1814.
The cost of war
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War was hugely expensive
Over 60% of govt income in 1689-1697.
How was this financed?
Revolution in tax collection. 1660-1784 tax
revenue grew 6 fold. Why? 1670-1810 tax
receipts outstripped economic growth. Therefore
economic growth was a factor but not the only
one. What were others? The Treasury became
very powerful in this period. Imposition of new
taxes and higher levels of existing taxes.
Switch from direct to indirect taxation.
Growth of state
• Why? Need to cloth, feed, arm troops and
supply navy. Growing number of tax officials and
govt administrators and victuallers and
contractors.
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Growing no of office-holders. Greatest
increase was in revenue depts esp. excise.
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Growth of bureaucracy. Separation of politics
and bureaucracy. 9 of Lowndes family served in
the Treasury 1674-1798. Establishment of rules
and routines. Reform in the 1780s
Financial Revolution: the
creation of a public debt
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Annuities
National Debt
Bank of England 1694
Paper money
State-sponsored joint-stock companies eg
East India Company
• State lotteries
Creation of a National Debt: 50-60 of income on servicing; 66% at end
of American war.
1797
The Lottery Contrast c.1780s
The Modern Promethesius or downfall of Tyranny 1814
How successful?
• Infrequent tax riots though 1725 in
Scotland vs Malt Tax. 1720 South Sea
Bubble (fear of speculation and its effects
on morality). 1733 excise crisis.
• Hostility to tax
• Fear of encroachment on British liberties
and destruction of the consensual,
dispersed state
1790
1790
1721
1791
1789
1795
1787
Conclusion
• A fiscal-military dimension to the state did
grow – some of it was planned but mostly
the necessary and even unintended
consequences of war
• An ambiguous reaction to this
development: suspicion and even
opposition to this process as much as
patriotic celebration of the military capacity
of the British state