Full Description
The international financial crisis of 2007-08 and the ensuing scandals continue to raise important debates about the role of institutions in maintaining trust and fighting corruption, as well as in sustaining economic growth and political stability in a globalized world. This book proposes to historicize these problems by looking at the ways in which early-modern Europe responded to similar challenges brought about by the rising costs of international warfare in a period marked by the development of commercial capitalism and the rise of fiscal states.
Building upon the expertise of a group of fiscal historians who are leaders in their respective fields, ten chapters successively examine how Spain, Britain, France, the Southern Low Countries, the Netherlands, Sweden and Prussia dealt with domestic conflicts arising from the business of war, especially issues of financial profit, fraud and corruption. Through a series of case studies, this volume explores how the various European polities engaged with the transformative effects of warfare on the relationship between private and public interests, paving the way for institutional reforms and transformed ethics.
Contents
Chapter 1. Introduction; Anne Dubet and Joël Félix.- Chapter 2. Credit and Discredit of Financiers in Wartime: Defrauding and Serving the Crown in Seventeenth-Century Spain; Sébastien Malaprade.- Chapter 3. "I carry a serpent in my bosom, which devours me": Finance, Morality and the Public Service in the Nine Years War, 1688-1697; Aaron Graham.- Chapter 4. The Spanish Monarchy and Financier Fraud During the Early Eighteenth Century: A Morality of Favours and Negotiation; Anne Dubet.- Chapter 5. Forgery of the French Coinage: The Question of the Counterfeit Money in the Southern Low Countries, 1710-1730; Marie-Laure Legay.- Chapter 6. The Talhouët Affair; François R. Velde.- Chapter 7. Tax Officials Stand Accused: Reform in Taxation and Public Morality in the Dutch Republic, 1748-1756; Toon Kerkhoff.- Chapter 8. Between Private and Public Interests: The Moral Economy of Collaboration in Eighteenth-Century Spain; Agustín González Enciso.- Chapter 9. Why did Chambres de Justice Disappear in Eighteenth-Century France? Fiscal Profit and Institutional Change, 1688-1788; Joël Félix.- Chapter 10. War, Resources and Morality: Sweden 1740-1770; Patrik Winton.- Chapter 11. For the Good of the Prince: Government and Corruption in Germany During the Eighteenth Century; Robert Bernsee.
