Paying for the liberal state: the rise of public finance in nineteenth century Europe

José Luís Cardoso () and Pedro Lains

Working Papers in Economic History from Universidad Carlos III, Departamento de Historia Económica e Instituciones

Abstract: 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 paper is about the rise and development of taxation systems, expenditure programs, and dept 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. We analyse nine countries or empires that are considered highly representative of the widest European experience on the matter and discuss 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

Keywords: Nineteenth Century Europe; Governments; Public finances; Taxation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G20 N23 N43 O16 O23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-pbe
Date: 2009-06

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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cte:whrepe:wp09-03

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