The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (111 page)

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Authors: Paul Kennedy

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91.
Cited in Creveld,
Supplying War
, p. 17.

92.
Ibid., pp. 13–17.

93.
See again Elliott,
Richelieu and Olivares
, ch. 6.

CHAPTER THREE
Finance, Geography, and the Winning of Wars, 1660–1815
 

1.
For basic political narratives of this period, see D. McKay and H. M. Scott,
The Rise of the Great Powers 1648–1815
(London, 1983), an excellent survey;
NCMH
, vols. 5–9; W. Doyle,
The Old European Order 1660–1800
(Oxford, 1978); E. N. Williams,
The Ancien Regime in Europe 1648–1789
(Harmondsworth, Mddsx., 1979 edn.). Europe in the outside world is treated in J. H. Parry,
Trade and Dominion: The European Overseas Empire in the Eighteenth Century
(London, 1971); G. Williams,
The Expansion of Europe in the Eighteenth Century
(London, 1966). For cartographical representations of these trends, see G. Barraclough (ed.),
Times Atlas of World History
, pp. 192ff.

2.
On military and naval developments generally, see Nef,
War and Human Progress
, pt. 2; Ropp,
War in the Modern World
, chs. 1–4; Preston, Wise, and Werner,
Men in Arms
, chs. 9–12; McNeill,
Pursuit of Power
, chs. 4–6; H. Strachan,
European Armies and the Conduct of War
(London/Boston, 1983), chs. 1–4; J. Childs,
Armies and Warfare in Europe 1648–1789
(Manchester, 1982). On navies, see Reynolds,
Command of the Sea
, chs. 6–9; Kennedy,
Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery
, chs. 3–5; Padfield,
Tide of Empires
, vol. 2.

3.
On these developments, see, in addition to the references in note 2 above, A. Corvisier,
Armies and Societies in Europe 1494–1789
(Bloomington, 1979), espec. pt. 2; Howard,
War in European History
, ch. 4; van Creveld,
Supplying War
, pp. l0ff; C. Tilly (ed.),
The Formation of National States in Western Europe
(Princeton, N.J., 1975), espec. S. E. Finer’s essay “State-and-Nation-Building in Europe: The Role of the Military,” pp. 84–163.

4.
G. Parker, “Emergence of Modern Finance in Europe,” passim; Tilly (ed.),
Formation of National States in Western Europe
, chs. 3–4; F. Braudel,
The Wheels of Commerce
, vol. 2 of
Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Centuries
(London, 1982); H. van der Wee, “Monetary, Credit and Banking Systems,” in E. R. Rich and C. H. Wilson (eds.),
The Cambridge Economic History of Europe
, vol. 5 (Cambridge, 1977), pp. 290–392; P.G.M. Dickson and J. Sperling, “War Finance, 1689–1714,” in
NCMH
, vol. 6, ch. 9. Note also K. A. Rasier and W. R. Thompson, “Global Wars, Public Debts, and the Long Cycle,”
World Politics
, vol. 35 (1983), pp. 489–516; and C. Webber and A. Wildavsky,
A History of Taxation and Expenditure in the Western World
(New York, 1986), pp. 250ff.

5.
The term refers, of course, to the title of P.G.M. Dickson’s excellent book
The Financial Revolution in England: A Study in the Development of Public Credit 1688–1756
(London, 1967).

6.
This endless debate is covered in W. Sombart,
Krieg und Kapitalismus
(Munich, 1913); Nef,
War and Human Progress;
and many later books and articles. See the useful introduction and bibliography in J. M. Winter (ed.),
War and Economic Development
(Cambridge, 1975).

7.
Parker, “Emergence of Modern Finance,” passim; Wallerstein,
Modern World System
, vol. 2, pp. 57ff; C. H. Wilson,
Anglo-Dutch Commerce and Finance in
the Eighteenth Century
(Cambridge, 1966 reprint); V. Barbour,
Capitalism in Amsterdam in the Seventeenth Century
(Baltimore, 1950), espec. ch. 6. Above all, see now J. C. Riley,
International Government Finance and the Amsterdam Capital Market 1740–1815
(Cambridge, 1980).

8.
See the discussion on this in Wilson, “Decline of the Netherlands,” in
Economic History and the Historian: Collected Essays
(London, 1969), pp. 22–47; and idem,
Anglo-Dutch Commerce and Finance;
as well as the references in note 23 below.

9.
Riley,
International Government Finance
, chs. 6–7.

10.
For general comparisons of the French and British economies, financial policies, and fiscal systems, see Wallerstein,
Modern World System
, vol. 2, chs. 3 and 6; P. Mathias and P. O’Brien, “Taxation in Britain and France, 1715–1810,”
Journal of European Economic History
, vol. 5, no. 3 (Winter 1976), pp. 601–49; F. Crouzet, “L’Angleterre et France au XVIII
e
siècle: essai d’analyse comparée de deux croissances économiques,”
Annales
, vol. 21 (1966), pp. 254–91; McNeill,
Pursuit of Power
, espec. ch. 6; N.F.R. Crafts, “Industrial Revolution in England and France: Some Thoughts on the Question: ‘Why was England First?’ ”
Economic History Review
, 2nd series, vol. 30 (1977), pp. 429–41. There is a brief synopsis in P. Kriedte,
Peasants, Landlords and Merchant Capitalists: Europe and the World Economy, 1500–1800
(Leamington Spa, 1983), pp. 115ff.

11.
Mathias and O’Brien, “Taxation in Britain and France,” passim; and for the earlier period, see again Dickson and Sperling, “War Finance 1689–1714,” passim. There is, however, nothing quite like R. Braun’s penetrating comparative essay “Taxation, Sociopolitical Structure, and State-Building,” in Tilly (ed.),
Formation of National States in Western Europe
, pp. 243–327.

12.
Dickson,
Financial Revolution in England
, p. 198. For the institutional story, see J. H. Clapham,
The Bank of England
, vol. 1,
1694–1797
(Cambridge, 1944); and H. Roseveare,
The Treasury: The Evolution of a British Institution
(London/New York, 1969); and compare with the much less satisfactory (and irregular) situation prior to 1688: C. D. Chandaman,
The English Public Revenue 1660–1688
(Oxford, 1975).

13.
Riley,
International Government Finance
, chs. 4 and 6; Wilson,
Anglo-Dutch Commerce and Finance
, passim; A. C. Carter, “Dutch Foreign Investment, 1738–1800,”
Economica
, n.s., vol. 20 (November 1953), pp. 322–40. The role of Dutch finance in Britain’s growth is also stressed (and perhaps exaggerated) in Wallerstein,
Modern World System
, vol. 2, pp. 279ff; but note also the interesting arguments in L. Neal, “Interpreting Power and Profit in Economic History: A Case Study of the Seven Years War,”
Journal of Economic History
, vol. 37 (1977), pp. 34–35.

14.
Dickson,
Financial Revolution in England
, p. 9, which is the source for Table 2.

15.
Bishop Berkeley’s quotation is from ibid., p. 15. For McNeill’s argument about the “feedback loop,” see
Pursuit of Power
, pp. 178, 206ff.

16.
The most useful study here is J. F. Bosher,
French Finances, 1770–1795
(Cambridge, 1970); but see also the articles by Dickson and Sperling, “War Finance,” and Mathias and O’Brien, “Taxation in Britain and France,” as well as the references in
Chapter 2
above to the writings of Bonney, Dent, and Guery. See also the older work R. Mousnier, “L’evolution des finances publiques en France et en Angleterre pendant les guerres de la Ligue d’Augsburg et de la Succession d’Espagne,”
Revue Historique
, vol. 44, no. 205 (1951), pp. 1–23.

17.
Bosher,
French Finances 1770–1795
, p. 20. This argument is summarized in Bosher’s article “French Administration and Public Finance in their European Setting,”
NCMH
, vol. 8, ch. 20. For calculations of the amount of taxes siphoned
off into private hands, see Mathias and O’Brien, “Taxation in Britain and France,” pp. 643–46.

18.
The direct quotations come from J. G. Clark,
La Rochelle and the Atlantic Economy During the Eighteenth Century
(Baltimore/London, 1981), pp. 23, 226; and see in particular chs. 1 and 7, as well as the conclusion. That story can be compared with the British experience, as recounted in R. Davis,
The Rise of the Atlantic Economies
(London, 1975); W. E. Minchinton (ed.),
The Growth of English Overseas Trade in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
(London, 1969); A. Calder,
Revolutionary Empire: The Rise of the English-Speaking Empires from the Fifteenth Century to the 1780s
(London, 1981), bks. 2–3; as well as a host of specialized books upon individual ports and trades.

19.
See the illuminating detail in the chapters “Finances” and “Supply and Equipment” in L. Kennet,
The French Armies in the Seven Years War: A Study in Military Organization and Administration
(Durham, N.C., 1967). For the navy’s weaknesses, particularly with respect to provisions and timber, see P. W. Barn-ford,
Forests and French Sea Power 1660–1789
(Toronto, 1956), passim; and Jenkins,
History of the French Navy
, ch. 8; and the remarkable analysis by J. F. Bosher, “Financing the French Navy in the Seven Years War:
Beaujon, Goossens et compagnie
in 1759,” to be published in
U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings
. For a British comparison, see D. A. Baugh,
British Naval Administration in the Age of Walpole
(Princeton, 1965), passim.

20.
For these comparative statistics, see Bosher,
French Finances 1770–1795
, pp. 23–24. This can be supplemented by R. D. Harris, “French Finances and the American War, 1777–1783,”
Journal of Modern History
, vol. 46, no. 2 (1976), pp. 233–58; G. Ardent, “Financial Policy and Economic Infrastructure of Modern States and Nations,” in Tilly (ed.),
Formation of National States in Western Europe
, pp. 217ff; Hamilton, “Origin and Growth of the National Debt in Western Europe,” pp. 122–24. The place of taxation in the French crisis of the late 1780s is delineated in Doyle,
The Old European Order
, pp. 313–20; and
NCMH
, vol. 8, chs. 20–21. For Pitt’s reforms, see J. Ehrman,
The Younger Pitt, 2
vols. to date (London, 1969 and 1983), vol. 1, pp. 239ff; and J.E.D. Binney,
British Public Finance and Administration, 1774–1792
(Oxford, 1958), passim.

21.
There is no prospect of giving a satisfactory (let alone an exhaustive) list of references to the war finance of these other states. In general see Tilly (ed.),
Formation of National States in Western Europe
, chs. 3–4;
NCMH
, vol. 6, pp. 20ff, 284ff; and C. Moraze, “Finance et despotisme, essai sur les despotes eclaires,”
Annales
, vol. 3 (1948), pp. 279–96. For Prussia, see the brief remarks in
NCMH
, vol. 7, pp. 296ff, and vol. 8, pp. 7ff, 565ff; and C. Duffy,
The Army of Frederick the Great
(Newton Abbott, 1974), ch. 8. For the Habsburg Empire, see idem,
The Army of Maria Theresa: The Armed Forces of Imperial Austria, 1740–1780
(London, 1977), ch. 10. Even in Russia’s case, where conscription operated and the resources of the country were ransacked for military purposes, the earlier self-sufficiency in cash and kind had been replaced by an increasing recourse to foreign loans and paper money by the final decade of the eighteenth century; see idem,
Russia’s Military Way to the West: Origins and Nature of Russian Military Power 1700–1800
(London, 1981), pp. 36–38, 179–180.

22.
Jones,
Britain and Europe in the Seventeenth Century
, ch. 5; Kennedy,
Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery
, pp. 50ff.

23.
J. G. Stork-Penning, “The Ordeal of the States: Some Remarks on Dutch Politics During the War of the Spanish Succession,”
Acta Historiae Neerlandica
, vol. 2 (1967), pp. 107–41; C. R. Boxer, “The Dutch Economic Decline,” in Cipolla (ed.),
Economic Decline of Empires;
Wilson, “Taxation and the Decline of Empires:
An Unfashionable Theme,” in
Economic History and the Historian
, pp. 114–27; Wolf,
Toward a European Balance of Power
, ch. 7. See also the synopsis in C. P. Kindleberger, “Commercial Expansion and the Industrial Revolution,”
Journal of European Economic History
, vol. 4, no. 3 (Winter 1975), pp. 620ff.

24.
A. C. Carter,
The Dutch Republic in Europe in the Seven Years War
(London, 1971), especially ch. 7; and, more generally, idem,
Neutrality or Commitment: the Evolution of Dutch Foreign Policy (1667–1795)
(London, 1975), an excellent survey.

25.
Carter,
Neutrality or Commitment
, pp. 89ff; and the relevant chapters in E. H. Kossmann,
The Low Countries 1780–1940
(Oxford, 1978).

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