Anatomy of a Premodern State

Leonor Freire Costa, António Henriques and Nuno Palma

Economics Discussion Paper Series from Economics, The University of Manchester

Abstract: We provide a blueprint for constructing measures of state capacity in premodern states, offering several advantages over the current state of the art. We argue that assessing changing state capacity requires considering the composition of revenues, expenditure patterns, and local-level budgets. As an application, we examine the case of Portugal (1367–1844). Our findings demonstrate that throughout most of this extended period, Portugal maintained comparatively high fiscal and legal capacities. This challenges claims that Portugal’s economic decline from the second half of the eighteenth century was due to low state capacity.

Keywords: state capacity; fiscal capacity; premodern economic growth; Portugal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H20 N43 O23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-10, Revised 2024-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Forthcoming in European Review of Economic History.

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Related works:
Working Paper: Anatomy of a premodern state (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:man:sespap:2208

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